First Edition: June 21, 2018
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
1 In 5 Immigrant Children Detained During ‘Zero Tolerance’ Border Policy Are Under 13
The Trump administration has detained 2,322 children 12 years old or younger amid its border crackdown, a Department of Health and Human Services official told Kaiser Health News on Wednesday. They represent almost 20 percent of the immigrant children currently held by the U.S. government in the wake of its latest immigrant prosecution policy. Their welfare is being overseen by a small division of the Department of Health and Human Services — the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) — which has little experience or expertise in handling very young children. (Luthra and Taylor, 6/20)
The New York Times:
Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway And JPMorgan Name C.E.O. For Health Initiative
It’s a marquee name for a marquee venture. Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, the powerful triumvirate that earlier announced its hope to overhaul the health care of its employees and set an example for the nation, said on Wednesday that it had picked one of the country’s most famous doctors to lead the new operation. Dr. Atul Gawande, a Harvard surgeon and staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, will become chief executive of the new company, which will be based in Boston, on July 9. (Abelson and Hsu, 6/20)
The Associated Press:
Amazon, Buffett, JPMorgan Pick Gawande To Lead Health Firm
Berkshire Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett has described health costs as a "hungry tapeworm on the American economy." And the leaders of the three companies see a lot they want to fix, even though they have said little yet about how that will be done. "We said at the outset that the degree of difficulty is high and success is going to require an expert's knowledge, a beginner's mind, and a long-term orientation," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement Wednesday. "(Gawande) embodies all three, and we're starting strong as we move forward in this challenging and worthwhile endeavor." (Murphy, 6/20)
NPR:
Atul Gawande: CEO Of Health Venture By Amazon, JPMorgan And Berkshire Hathaway
"I have devoted my public health career to building scalable solutions for better healthcare delivery that are saving lives, reducing suffering, and eliminating wasteful spending both in the US and across the world," Gawande said in a press release announcing his new job. "Now I have the backing of these remarkable organizations to pursue this mission with even greater impact for more than a million people, and in doing so incubate better models of care for all. This work will take time but must be done. The system is broken, and better is possible." (Hensley, 6/20)
The Washington Post:
Atul Gawande Named To Head Cost-Cutting Health-Care Venture From Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway And JPMorgan Chase
Choosing Gawande, a practicing surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and a writer for the New Yorker magazine, suggests that the company will be focused on innovation that could ripple broadly. Gawande was praised Wednesday by colleagues as a creative, visionary leader who has devoted his career to devising health-care solutions that can be widely adopted to improve surgery, childbirth and end-of-life care around the world. He is best known for making surgery safer through the implementation of a simple checklist. "He's never one to shy away from a problem, particularly a problem that appears to be unsolvable," said Elizabeth Nabel, the president of Brigham Health. "For Atul, it’s always about reducing suffering, saving lives and creating efficiencies in the health system. So I think the best is still ahead of him. He's such a creative and talented individual, I think we don’t know yet what his scalable solutions will be." (Johnson, 6/20)
The Wall Street Journal:
Gawande To Head Health Venture Of Berkshire, Amazon, JPMorgan
In January, Amazon, Berkshire and JPMorgan announced they teamed up to figure out how to reduce health-care costs and improve care for their hundreds of thousands of U.S. employees. The companies said the entity would operate independently and be free from profit-making incentives and constraints. Together, Amazon, Berkshire and JPMorgan have more than one million employees, though not all of them in the U.S. (Wilde Mathews, 6/20)
Stat:
5 Ideas That May Steer Gawande As CEO Of Amazon-Backed Health Venture
Atul Gawande has yet to speak out about his plans for leading the new Amazon-JPMorgan-Berkshire Hathaway health care organization, but his past speeches and writings provide some clues to what he might do in the job. Here are five key points about Gawande’s views. (Joseph and Thielking, 6/20)
Modern Healthcare:
Fraud Fears Rise As Feds Expand Access To Association Health Plans
Regulators and insurance experts worry the Trump administration's new rule expanding association health plans for small businesses and self-employed people will lead to a spike in insurance fraud and insolvencies that plagued consumers and healthcare providers in the past. The Labor Department's 198-page final rule, issued Tuesday in response to President Donald Trump's executive order in October, will make it easier for small firms and individuals to band together across state lines in association health plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. (Meyer, 6/20)
The Hill:
NY, Mass. To Sue Over Trump Health Plans Skirting ObamaCare Requirements
New York and Massachusetts will sue the Trump administration over its expansion of health insurance plans that don't meet all of ObamaCare's requirements. New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood (D) and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey (D) argue the expansion of association health plans will "invite fraud, mismanagement and deception." (Hellmann, 6/20)
The Wall Street Journal:
Insurers To Expand Presence In Affordable Care Act Marketplaces Despite Uncertainty
After years of pullbacks, insurers are increasing their footprints in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces next year, despite uncertainty including the latest court challenge to the health law. Centene Corp. and Molina Healthcare Inc. said they are making regulatory filings to newly join or re-enter ACA exchanges in states including North Carolina, Wisconsin and Utah. Smaller operators have made filings signaling they will likely come into markets where they didn’t offer ACA marketplace products this year, including Bright Health Inc. in Tennessee, Virginia Premier in the Richmond, Va., area and Presbyterian Health Plan in New Mexico. (Wilde Mathews, 6/21)
The Hill:
Key ObamaCare Groups In Limbo As They Await Funding
Local groups that help people sign up for ObamaCare and Medicaid have yet to hear from the Trump administration about their annual federal funding, leaving many in limbo and fearing the grants could be too small or might not come at all. “We really haven’t gotten any update or any deadline to submit applications or any knowledge at all about what the future is going to bring,” said Karen Egozi, CEO of the Epilepsy Foundation of Florida, one of the state’s larger health-care navigator programs. (Hellmann and Roubein, 6/20)
The New York Times:
Trump’s Executive Order On Family Separation, Explained
President Trump on Wednesday sought to quell the uproar over his administration’s systematic separation of immigrant children from their families at the border, signing an executive order he portrayed as ending the problem. (Savage, 6/20)
The New York Times:
Trump Retreats On Separating Families, But Thousands May Remain Apart
“We’re going to have strong — very strong — borders, but we are going to keep the families together,” Mr. Trump said as he signed the order in the Oval Office. “I didn’t like the sight or the feeling of families being separated.” But ending the practice of separating families still faces legal and practical obstacles. A federal judge could refuse to give the Trump administration the authority it wants to hold families in custody for more than 20 days, which is the current limit because of a 1997 court order. (Shear, Goodnough, and Haberman, 6/20)
The Washington Post:
Fact-Checking Claims About Trump’s Plan To Stop Family Separations
A new executive order signed by President Trump lays out steps to end the separation of immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border. We see this as a tacit admission by the Trump administration that many of its previous claims about family separations were bunk. Until Trump signed the order June 20, the administration was insisting that it didn’t have a policy of separating families (false), that several laws and court rulings were forcing these separations (false), that Democrats were to blame (false), that only Congress could stop family separations (false) and that an executive order wouldn’t get the job done. (Rizzo and Kelly, 6/21)
The Washington Post:
The Trauma Of Separation Lingers Long After Children Are Reunited With Parents
Long after the wailing and tears, the trauma of separation can linger in children’s minds, even after they are reunited with their parents, experts say. On Wednesday, under pressure from around the globe and his own party, President Trump signed an executive order to keep migrant families together. For some, the crisis may now seem resolved. But experts warn that for many of those children, the psychological damage of their separation will require treatment by mental health professionals — services they are extremely unlikely to receive because of U.S. government policies for undocumented migrants. (Wan, 6/20)
Los Angeles Times:
'Children Must Not Be Abused For Political Purposes': What Health Groups Say About Family Separation
America’s medical and public health organizations have been unanimous in their criticism of the Trump administration’s practice of separating migrant children from their parents at the southern border. President Trump signed an executive order ending the policy on Wednesday, after U.S. border officials placed more than 2,300 children in facilities away from their parents, who were detained for criminal prosecution. Here’s a roundup of why these groups opposed the family separation policy, and what they’ve said about it. (Healy, 6/20)
Los Angeles Times:
The Long-Lasting Health Effects Of Separating Children From Their Parents At The U.S. Border
Researchers have long looked upon wars, famines and mass migrations as grim but important opportunities to understand how adversity affects children’s health. They’ve culled the experiences of orphans warehoused in government facilities, Jewish children dispatched to foreign families ahead of a Nazi invasion, and young refugees fleeing guerrilla warfare in Central America. They’ve conducted experiments in child development labs, taken brain scans, used epidemiological methods, examined the narratives of children torn from their parents — all in an effort to find meaning in tragedy. (Healy, 6/20)
Politico:
‘Some Of The Kids I Spoke To Were Traumatized. Some Could Barely Speak.’
Advocates slam the conditions as inappropriate for children and say the Trump administration’s policy to criminally prosecute all migrants crossing into the United States illegally and its attendant family separations are overwhelming holding and processing centers, forcing migrants – including young children -- to stay in them for far longer than the permitted 72 hours before they are transferred to shelters. “Some of the kids I spoke to were traumatized, some could barely speak,” said Michelle Brané, director at Detention and Asylum Program at the Women's Refugee Commission, who toured CBP facilities last Thursday. (Rayasam, 6/20)
NPR:
A Pediatrician Reports Back From A Visit To A Children's Shelter Near The Border
Dr. Colleen Kraft, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, visited a shelter in Texas' Rio Grande Valley where some of these children are held. She spoke with All Things Considered's Audie Cornish about that visit on Monday. She said she's concerned that the stress the children are going through will have long-term health effects. Stress triggers the release of fight-or-flight hormones, including epinephrine, cortisol and norepinephrine. When children are separated from their parents those hormones are increased and remain in the system, putting the child on high alert, Kraft said. (Davis, 6/20)
NPR:
Kids' Health Suffers When They Are Torn From Their Parents, Researchers Say
Rachel Osborn knows kids who slept in the immigrant detention centers in Texas that have dominated recent headlines. "We have kids who will say that was the worst part of their journey," Osborn says. "They were traveling for weeks and the hardest part was being in this freezing cold room where, you know, they were fed a cold sandwich and had a thin blanket to shiver under." And they had no parent or caregiver to comfort them and make them feel safe. (Kodjak, 6/20)
The Associated Press:
Rights Group Worried About Immigrants Dying In Custody
Huy Chi Tran was awaiting deportation at an immigrant detention center in Arizona when he was found unresponsive. A week later, he was dead. Initially rushed to a medical center, the 47-year-old Vietnamese man died after being hospitalized for a week. He was the seventh person to die in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody during the current year that began Oct. 1. (Snow, 6/20)
The New York Times:
What’s Behind The ‘Tender Age’ Shelters Opening For Young Migrants
The shelters were intended for children under the age of 12, referred to as “tender age” detainees, who are entering the detention system in ever-larger numbers under the Trump administration’s practice of separating children from parents who enter the country illegally. Many are toddlers and babies and require special care, and their numbers have been rising since last month, when the government enforced a “zero tolerance” policy on people crossing the border. Eestimates suggest that more than 2,400 children under the age of 12 are now in federal custody, including many who have been separated from their parents. (Dickerson and Fernandez, 6/20)
The Washington Post:
At Least 3 'Tender Age' Shelters Set Up For Child Migrants
The Trump administration has set up at least three “tender age” shelters to detain babies and other young children who have been forcibly separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, The Associated Press has learned. Doctors and lawyers who have visited the shelters in South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley said the facilities were fine, clean and safe, but the children — who have no idea where their parents are — were hysterical, crying and acting out . Many of them are under age 5, and some are so young they have not yet learned to talk. (Burke and Mendoza, 6/20)
The New York Times:
The Billion-Dollar, Secretive Business Of Operating Shelters For Migrant Children
The business of housing, transporting and watching over migrant children detained along the southwest border is not a multimillion-dollar business. It’s a billion-dollar one. The nonprofit Southwest Key Programs has won at least $955 million in federal contracts since 2015 to run shelters and provide other services to immigrant children in federal custody. (Fernandez and Benner, 6/21)
The Associated Press:
Young Immigrants Detained In Virginia Center Allege Abuse
Immigrant children as young as 14 housed at a juvenile detention center in Virginia say they were beaten while handcuffed and locked up for long periods in solitary confinement, left nude and shivering in concrete cells. The abuse claims against the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center near Staunton, Virginia, are detailed in federal court filings that include a half-dozen sworn statements from Latino teens jailed there for months or years. Multiple detainees say the guards stripped them of their clothes and strapped them to chairs with bags placed over their heads. (6/21)
Reuters:
U.S. Centers Force Migrant Children To Take Drugs: Lawsuit
Immigrant children are being routinely and forcibly given a range of psychotropic drugs at U.S. government-funded youth shelters to manage their trauma after being detained and in some cases separated from parents, according to a lawsuit. Children held at facilities such as the Shiloh Treatment Center in Texas are almost certain to be administered the drugs, irrespective of their condition, and without their parents' consent, according to the lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles-based Center for Human Rights & Constitutional Law. (6/20)
Politico:
GOP Immigration Bills On Brink Of Collapse
Speaker Paul Ryan’s carefully crafted immigration bill appears headed toward defeat after tensions boiled over in the House ahead of Thursday’s vote. In a rare dispute on the House floor Wednesday, Ryan and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows argued loudly with each other over what exactly was going to see a vote. At one point, looking down his glasses, Meadows angrily gestured at Ryan. (Bade, Caygle and Bresnahan, 6/20)
The Wall Street Journal:
Vulnerable Republicans Feel Heat From Uproar Over Migrant Families Issue
About 50 protesters gathered outside the office of Republican Rep. Jeff Denham this week to denounce the practice of separating immigrant children from their parents on the southern border. “It makes me almost cry,” said Gary Peichoto, a 68-year-old retired nurse practitioner from a rural part of Stanislaus County. “It gets me more emotionally involved in the whole aspect of getting Denham out of office.” (Andrews and Lazo, 6/20)
The New York Times:
Trump To Propose Government Reorganization, Targeting Safety Net Programs
President Trump plans to propose a reorganization of the federal government as early as Thursday that includes a possible merger of the Education and Labor Departments, coupled with a reshuffling of other domestic agencies to make them easier to cut or revamp, according to administration officials briefed on the proposal. The plan, which will most likely face significant opposition in Congress from Democrats and some Republicans, includes relocating many social safety net programs into a new megadepartment, which would replace the Department of Health and Human Services and possibly include the word “welfare” in its title. (Thrush and Green, 6/20)
The Washington Post:
White House To Propose Merging Labor And Education Into One Agency As Centerpiece Of Federal Government Overhaul
Many changes the Trump White House will propose Thursday — the Labor and Education merger and other plans to consolidate offices with similar missions, for example — would need to be approved by Congress, making their success a long shot in a politically divided period leading up to the midterm elections. But the strategies could serve to better frame Trump’s vision of government amid complaints from conservatives about the growing budget deficit. The president has not advocated for specific changes to agencies’ structures, although his supporters often gripe about what they believe is a “deep state” of entrenched federal workers that they want removed. (Rein and Paletta, 6/20)
The Wall Street Journal:
White House To Propose Merging Education, Labor Departments
The administration has also been weighing changes at the Department of Health and Human Services, such as consolidating safety-net programs under HHS. That could accompany a renaming of the department to something similar to its name in the 1970s, when it was called the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. HHS oversees Medicaid and other social assistance programs, while school meals and the food stamp program, formally called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, are run by the Department of Agriculture. The Treasury and Department of Housing and Urban Development oversee still other programs. (Hackman and Morath, 6/20)
The Washington Post:
Senate Rejects Billions In Trump Spending Cuts As Two Republicans Vote ‘No’
The Senate on Wednesday rejected billions in spending cuts proposed by the Trump administration as two Republicans joined all Democrats in voting no. The 48-50 vote rebuffed a White House plan to claw back some $15 billion in spending previously approved by Congress — a show of fiscal responsibility that was encouraged by conservative lawmakers outraged over a $1.3 trillion spending bill in March. The House had approved the so-called rescissions package earlier this month. But passage had never been assured in the Senate, where a number of Republicans had been cool to the idea from the start. (Werner, 6/20)
Bloomberg:
The ‘Right To Try’ Could Cost Dying Patients A Fortune
A small biotechnology company may be the first to offer dying patients unproven drugs under a new U.S. law called Right to Try that deregulated access to such experimental treatments. But it won’t be for free: Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. would charge for a therapy it is developing for the deadly condition known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. While details are still being worked out, the company’s chief executive officer pointed to the price of bespoke cell therapies used to treat cancer that cost more than $300,000. (Cortez, 6/20)
Stat:
Number Of Drug Makers Lobbying Congress On Pricing Issues Skyrockets
It’s no secret that the pharmaceutical industry has spent record-setting sums on lobbying in recent years. But much of that increase, according to a new report from a watchdog group here, is specific to the issue of drug pricing, which has taken hold as a top-tier policy issue on Capitol Hill. The number of companies that cited “drug pricing” or variations on the phrase in disclosure documents has more than quadrupled in the last five years, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit focused on government ethics issues. (Facher, 6/20)
Stat:
What's In The House's Bills To Address The Opioid Crisis — And What's Not
The House spent much of the last two weeks passing dozens of bills aimed at addressing the opioid crisis, an effort top lawmakers from both parties have long identified as a priority. Many are consensus proposals, though a few have generated controversy. Some are substantial in their scope, though many fund pilot programs or studies, or enact grants for which funding will expire within years. (Facher, 6/21)
The Hill:
Opioid Crisis Sending Thousands Of Children Into Foster Care
The opioid epidemic ravaging states and cities across the country has sent a record number of children into foster and state care systems, taxing limited government resources and testing a system that is already at or near capacity. An analysis of foster care systems around the country shows the number of children entering state or foster care rising sharply, especially in states hit hardest by opioid addiction. The children entering state care are younger, and they tend to stay in the system longer, than ever before. (Birnbaum and Lora, 6/20)
The Associated Press:
Appeals Court Tosses Veterans' Lawsuits Over Burn Pits
Military veterans who claim that the use of open burn pits during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan caused myriad health problems cannot move forward with dozens of lawsuits against a military contractor, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a federal judge in Maryland, who last year threw out the lawsuits brought against KBR, a former Halliburton Corp. subsidiary. (6/20)
The Hill:
Senate Panel Schedules Hearing On Trump VA Pick
President Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will get a Senate confirmation hearing next week. The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee will take up the nomination of Robert Wilkie on June 27, the committee announced Wednesday. (Weixel, 6/20)
Reuters:
EPA-Recommended Chemicals Levels In Water Too High: U.S. Report
The risk level for exposure in water to common chemicals used in Teflon and firefighting foam should be at least seven to 10 times lower than the threshold recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a draft report released on Wednesday that the White House and EPA had tried to keep from publication. The Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry released the draft study of the controversial class of chemicals called PFOA or PFAS for public comment. (Volocovici, 6/20)
Reuters:
New York Sues 3M, Five Others Over Toxic Chemical Contamination
New York state sued 3M Co and five other companies to recover the cost of cleaning up environmental contamination caused by toxic chemicals in firefighting foam that they manufactured. Governor Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Barbara Underwood said on Wednesday the lawsuit seeks more than $38.8 million plus punitive damages and is the first of its type by a U.S. state. (6/20)
Stat:
Lawmakers Press Genetic Testing Companies For Privacy Policy Details
Pressure is growing on direct-to-consumer genealogy and genetic testing companies to be more transparent about their privacy policies, after the arrest of the notorious Golden State Killer using publicly available data from one of the websites. In a letter sent this week — and shared with STAT — Reps. Dave Loebsack of Iowa and Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey peppered four of the platforms with questions about their security systems and customer privacy. The Democratic lawmakers are hoping to work with the companies — 23andMe, AncestryDNA, Family Tree DNA, and National Geographic Geno — to identify and resolve any privacy and security issues. And they’re in a prime position to do so: They sit on the Energy and Commerce committee, which handles both health care and privacy issues in technology. (Thielking, 6/21)
The Associated Press:
Science Says: What Makes Something Truly Addictive
Now that the world's leading public health group says too much Minecraft can be an addiction, could overindulging in chocolate, exercise, even sex, be next? The short answer is probably not. The new "gaming disorder" classification from the World Health Organization revives a debate in the medical community about whether behaviors can cause the same kind of addictive illness as drugs. (6/21)
The Associated Press:
FDA Reconsiders Added Sugar Label For Maple Syrup, Honey
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reconsidering its plan to require that pure maple syrup and honey be labeled as containing added sugars. Maple syrup producers had rallied against the plan, saying the nutrition labels updates were misleading, illogical and confusing and could hurt their industries. (6/20)
The Associated Press:
Are Sugar Worries Weighing On Frappuccino Sales?
Frappuccino sales are struggling, and concerns about how much sugar the slushy drinks contain may be among the reasons. Starbucks says sales from the drinks that mix coffee, ice, syrup and milk are down 3 percent from a year ago, and is blaming the "health and wellness" trend for the dip. "These are oftentimes more indulgent beverages— higher in sugar, higher in calories," Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said during a presentation to investors Tuesday. (6/20)
The Associated Press:
New Flu Vaccine Only A Little Better Than Traditional Shot
A newer kind of flu vaccine only worked a little bit better in seniors this past winter than traditional shots, the government reported Wednesday. Overall, flu vaccines barely worked at all in keeping people 65 and older out of the hospital, with roughly 24 percent effectiveness. The best performance was by a new shot called Flucelvax; it was about 26.5 percent effective in that age group. The difference wasn't as large as some had hoped. (6/20)
The Washington Post:
Shingrix Shingles Vaccine Shortage Leads To Waiting Lists And Delays
A national shortage of a new and more effective vaccine to protect adults older than 50 from the painful rash known as shingles is prompting retailers to create waiting lists and the manufacturer to delay additional promotion. Shingrix, licensed in the fall by the Food and Drug Administration, is the preferred vaccine recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for protection from a disease that affects 1 in 3 adults in their lifetime. By recommending that healthy adults start receiving the vaccine at age 50 — a decade earlier than the previous recommendation — federal health officials are hoping that millions more people will be protected from shingles, which is caused by the reactivation of the same virus that causes chickenpox. (Sun, 6/20)
Stat:
Experimental Type 1 Diabetes Vaccine Offers Big Improvement In Small Study
An experimental therapy for type 1 diabetes, widely derided by mainstream diabetes researchers, lowered blood sugar levels to near normal, a small, ongoing trial found. Patients in the trial, whose blood sugar levels have remained near normal for five to eight years, take about one-third less insulin than they did before, reducing their risk of hypoglycemia, in which insulin lowers blood sugar to dangerously low levels. (Begley, 6/21)
The Washington Post:
Kids In These U.S. Hot Spots At Higher Risk Because Parents Opt Out Of Vaccinations
Public health officials have long known that the United States has pockets of vulnerability where the risk of measles and other vaccine-preventable childhood diseases is higher because parents hesitate or refuse to get their children immunized. Eighteen states allow parents to opt their children out of school immunization requirements for nonmedical reasons, with exemptions for religious or philosophical beliefs. And in two-thirds of those states, a comprehensive new analysis finds a rising number of kindergartners who have not been vaccinated. (Sun, 6/20)
Stat:
Can This Doctor Figure Out How To Stop Alzheimer’s Before It Starts?
Reisa Sperling, one of the world’s foremost researchers of Alzheimer’s disease, was vacationing at Lake Tahoe with her family in 2008 when she noticed her father was behaving strangely. “Where’s your mother?” he would ask, disoriented. “What are we doing here?” At first, Sperling thought her dad, a 74-year-old chemistry professor, might simply be tired. Perhaps the altitude had affected him. And then she had a terrible thought: He was acting just like her grandfather — his own father — who had died of Alzheimer’s in 1993. (Kendall, 6/20)
Stat:
Muscle And Fat Loss May Offer Clues To Pancreatic Cancer's Deadly Ways
Of all the places to get cancer, the pancreas may be the worst. Difficult to detect and nearly impossible to treat, pancreatic cancer is the only major cancer with a five-year survival rate below 10 percent. New research, published Wednesday in Nature, challenges some widely held assumptions about the disease and could eventually help doctors diagnose patients earlier, when treatments are most effective. The study’s findings came from investigating how early pancreatic tumors affect peripheral tissues — mainly muscle and fat — in both mice and humans. (Chen, 6/20)
Stat:
Consumer Group Petitions FDA To Yank A Widely Prescribed Gout Drug Over Heart Risks
A consumer advocacy group is asking regulators to “immediately remove” a widely used gout medication over concerns that it poses “unique, serious,” and potentially “fatal” risks to patients while not offering any health benefit. In a petition sent to the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday, Public Citizen argued there is “overwhelming evidence that the serious cardiovascular harms of (Uloric) outweigh any purported clinical benefit,” and that a failure to remove the drug ensures “further preventable harm” to patients. (Silverman, 6/21)
The New York Times:
Night Owls May Have Higher Depression Risk
Night owls may be at greater risk for depression than early birds. Previous studies have found a link between a person’s unique circadian rhythm, or chronotype, and depression, but none were able to tell whether sleep habits were a cause or an effect of the disease. This new prospective study, in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, is a step closer to establishing causality. (Bakalar, 6/20)
The Associated Press:
Kate Spade Foundation To Donate $1M For Suicide Prevention
Kate Spade New York has announced plans to donate $1 million to support suicide prevention and mental health awareness causes in tribute to the company's late founder. To start, the company said Wednesday the Kate Spade New York Foundation is giving $250,000 to the Crisis Text Line , a free, 24-hour confidential text message service for people in crisis. (6/20)
The Washington Post:
These College Students Moonlight As ‘Grandkids’ For Hire. Seniors Love It.
When Andrew Parker’s grandfather began suffering from dementia three years ago, his grandmother had to start taking care of the house and caring for him. It was hard work, and one day, Parker got the idea to hire a college student to help out. “I said, ‘Hey, can you go hang out with my grandfather and make him a sandwich or something? I’ll pay you, lets see how it goes.” His grandfather loved it. And more importantly, so did his grandmother. For a few hours, he said, “She got to go do her own thing.” (Bahrampour, 6/20)
The Associated Press:
Virginia Health Care Providers Sue Over Abortion Regulations
A group of women's health care providers filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to overturn a number of Virginia's abortion regulations in light of a landmark 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The lawsuit filed in federal court challenges Virginia laws, some decades old, that restrict who can provide an abortion and how it can be provided. The plaintiffs argue the laws are unconstitutional obstacles to care that are not supported by medical evidence. (6/20)
The Washington Post:
Abortion Advocates Filed A Federal Lawsuit Against The State Of Virginia, Seeking To Roll Back Restrictions On Abortion
The suit contends that some of those restrictions, such as a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion and a state-mandated abdominal ultrasound, are medically unnecessary and therefore unconstitutional in the wake of a 2016 Supreme Court ruling in a Texas case. In that case, the justices found that certain restrictions Texas had imposed in the name of protecting women’s health were medically unjustified and intended to make abortions harder to obtain. (Vozzella, 6/20)
The New York Times:
86 And Opening Closet Doors At The Hebrew Home
At the start of a recent meeting of the L.G.B.T. & Allies group at the Hebrew Home here, the group leaders Olivia Cohen and Liisa Murray reminded attendees of the ground rules, which they had written on a poster board. “Treat others like you wish to be treated,” was one, and another was “what is said in the group stays in the group.” Participants are also urged to be nonjudgmental and to respect one another. (Hanc, 6/21)
The New York Times:
The Shifting Global Terrain Of L.G.B.T.Q. Rights
This year, and especially this month, events and celebrations in countries around the world are marking the growing acceptance of people who identify as L.G.B.T.Q. Some, like New York City and San Francisco, are splashy and spectacular. Others, like Lexington, Ky., and Bilbao, Spain, are much more modest, even wary, but they are still celebrations. (Mohn, 6/21)
The Associated Press:
Lawsuit: Georgia Is Denying Equal Access For Deaf Inmates
Georgia isn't doing enough to help deaf and partially deaf people communicate while they're locked up and after they're released, which can lead to longer incarceration and more returns to prison, according to a new version of a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday. (6/20)
The Associated Press:
Legal Fight Winding Down In Hospital Hepatitis C Case
A New Hampshire hospital is closer to holding others financially accountable for a traveling medical technician who infected dozens of patients in multiple states with hepatitis C. David Kwiatkowski is serving 39 years in prison for stealing painkillers and replacing them with saline-filled syringes tainted with his blood. Despite being fired numerous times over drug allegations, he had worked as a cardiac technologist in 18 hospitals in seven states before being hired in New Hampshire in 2011. After his arrest in 2012, 46 people in four states were diagnosed with the same strain of the hepatitis C virus he carries, including one who died in Kansas. (Ramer, 6/20)