Thursday, October 20, 2022 – Kaiser Health News

CNBC: Uninsured Kids Will Still Receive Covid Vaccines For Free After Shots Move To Commercial Market
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took a major step Wednesday toward ensuring that kids who are uninsured can receive Covid-19 vaccines for free after the federal government shifts its immunization program to the commercial market. (Kimball, 10/19)

Bloomberg: Low-Income Kids Should Get Free Covid Shots, CDC Panel Says
On Thursday, the panel will vote to update the 2023 childhood and the adult vaccination schedules, which are revised annually. The panel is likely to vote on whether Covid-19 vaccines should be added to the routine immunization schedules. While there is concern spreading online that adding Covid-19 vaccines to the immunization schedule would make them mandatory, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf said that won’t be the case. (Rutherford, John Milton and Baumann, 10/19)

The Washington Post: False Claim That CDC Would Require Covid Vaccines For Kids Goes Viral
On Tuesday morning, a Fox News contributor claimed on Twitter that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was set to mandate that schoolchildren get coronavirus vaccines. By Tuesday evening, the claim was being repeated by the nation’s most popular cable news show, and had been amplified to millions more on social media. (Diamond and Sun, 10/19)

ABC News: CDC Corrects Conservative Claim: They Cannot Mandate COVID Vaccines In Schools
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is pushing back on a claim made by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, who said on his show this week that a CDC decision was likely coming to force kids to get COVID-19 vaccines in order to attend school. (Haslett, 10/20)

Reuters: Fact Check-COVID-19 Vaccines Not Linked To 8,200% Increase In Child Deaths In Past Year, As Claimed In Online Video
COVID-19 vaccines have not caused an 8,200% increase in child deaths between 2021 and 2022, as has been claimed in a video posted on social media. That figure “completely misrepresents data”, according to a UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) spokesperson. (10/19)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Authorizes Novavax Covid-19 Shot As Booster For Adults
The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization to Novavax Inc.’s Covid-19 shot as a booster for adults. The shot targets the original strain of the virus, whereas the updated booster shots from Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc. and its partner BioNTech SE, authorized in August by the FDA, target both the original strain and newer Omicron strains. The Novavax shot also uses a protein platform, whereas the other two companies’ boosters use messenger RNA, a newer technology. (Whyte, 10/19)

AP: US Clears Novavax COVID Booster Dose 
The Food and Drug Administration said the new booster option is for people 18 and older who can’t get the updated omicron-targeting Pfizer or Moderna boosters for medical or accessibility reasons — or who otherwise would not receive a COVID-19 booster shot at all. The FDA specified the additional Novavax shot was to be used as a first booster — not for people who’ve already had one or more booster doses already — at least six months after completing their primary shots. (10/19)

Stat: FDA Authorizes Booster Shot For Novavax’s Covid-19 Vaccine
Novavax has presented data to the FDA that it said shows that its vaccine induces a broadly cross-protective response to various strains of SARS-2, including Omicron variants BA.1, BA.2, and BA.5. Data from the CDC indicate that BA.5 remains the dominant virus strain at present, though a half-dozen or so other Omicron variants are starting to replace it. BA.1 and BA.2 viruses no longer appear to be circulating in this country. Novavax’s Covid vaccine showed highly favorable results in initial trials, with efficacy close to that shown by the mRNA vaccines. (Branswell, 10/19)

Axios: COVID Played A Role In 1 In 4 Maternal Deaths In 2020 And 2021
COVID-19 contributed to a quarter of maternal deaths in the first two years of the pandemic, with Black pregnant women experiencing a mortality rate nearly three times higher than their white peers, according to an oversight report to Congress released on Wednesday. (Moreno, 10/19)

AP: COVID-19 Linked To Increase In US Pregnancy-Related Deaths 
The percentage of preterm and low birthweight babies also went up last year, after holding steady for years. And more pregnant or postpartum women are reporting symptoms of depression. (Seitz, 10/19)

More on covid-related deaths —

The Washington Post: White Covid Deaths Increasing In U.S., Surpassing Death Rate Of Blacks 
A Post analysis of covid death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from April 2020 through this summer found the racial disparity vanished at the end of last year, becoming roughly equal. And at times during that same period, the overall age-adjusted death rate for White people slightly surpassed that of Black and Latino people. (Johnson and Keating, 10/19)

CIDRAP: COVID: ‘The Most Severe Global Mortality Shock Since World War II’ 
Two new studies uncover the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global life expectancy (LE), one showing substantial and sustained LE losses in the United States and Eastern Europe, and the other finding a link between LE at 60 years of age before the pandemic and excess deaths amid COVID-19 only in countries with older populations. (Van Beusekom, 10/19)

In other news about the spread of covid —

CBS News: NIH Probes Whether Boston University COVID Experiments Should Have Triggered Review
The National Institutes of Health is now examining whether experiments performed at Boston University should have triggered a federal review, the agency says, after scientists at the school tested strains they created of the COVID-19 virus combining the ancestral and Omicron variants. (Tin, 10/19)

NBC News: Omicron Subvariants: BA.4.6 Can Evade Immunity And May Lead To Reinfections
An omicron subvariant is once again demonstrating immune-dodging abilities, posing a threat to both vaccinated and previously infected individuals. A report published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that the subvariant, called BA.4.6, could drive reinfections. (Edwards, 10/19)

The Washington Post: You’re Probably Not Cleaning These 11 Very Germy Spots
While you know your toilet is germy and you’re probably aware that your phone and doorknobs can get gross, too, public health experts and epidemiologists see many more bacterial hot spots in a typical home. So wash your hands and read on for some of the sneakier places where germs and biofilms — the technical term for slimy layers of bacterial colonies — often lurk. (Herrada, 10/18)

Stat: FDA Panel Votes That Premature Birth Drug Should Be Withdrawn
After an extraordinary three-day hearing, an expert panel of advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration voted on Wednesday to uphold an effort by the regulator to withdraw a controversial drug for preventing premature births. (Silverman, 10/19)

AP: FDA Panel Backs Removal Of Unproven Pregnancy Drug 
FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf is expected to make a final decision on withdrawing the drug in the next several months. If he follows the panel’s advice, it would be the first time the FDA has formally pulled a drug that it initially approved based on promising early data. (Perrone, 10/19)

Axios: Controversy Over Preterm Birth Drug Reflects Broader Issues With FDA Approval Process
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel’s recommendation to pull an early birth drug from the market is only the latest controversy surrounding a popular program aimed at getting promising new treatments to patients faster. (Owens, 10/20)

In other pharmaceutical industry news —

Stat: Large Insurer Decides To Cover Prescription Digital Therapies 
A large commercial insurer’s decision to cover a controversial class of software-based treatments for psychiatric and other conditions could prove to be a landmark moment in the development of these so-called prescription digital therapeutics, which until now had been unable to secure coverage from insurers skeptical that the new technologies are as effective as their makers claim. (Aguilar, 10/19)

Roll Call: As Hepatitis C Proliferates, States Lift Barriers To Treatment 
While national efforts to eliminate hepatitis C have faced setbacks because of increased drug use, the impact of COVID-19 and insurance complications, there’s a bright spot: Some states are now making it easier for patients to treat the disease. (Raman, 10/19)

USA Today: CDC Study: Antihistamines May Play Deadly Role In Opioid Epidemic
Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified approximately 92,000 drug overdose deaths in 43 states and Washington, D.C., between 2019 and 2020, and found at least 18% involved or tested positive for antihistamines. More than 71% of those deaths included diphenhydramine, commonly known by its brand name Benadryl, according to the study published last week in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. (Rodriguez, 10/19)

More on the opioid crisis —

ABC7 Los Angeles: Halloween Warning: Parents Cautioned To Check Candy After Fentanyl Bust At LAX 
Authorities are again warning parents about the possibility of drugs mixed in with candy this Halloween after a big fentanyl bust at LAX. Someone tried to get through security at Los Angeles International Airport with bags of candy that contained some 12,000 pills of fentanyl early Wednesday morning. The opioid pills were contained inside packages of Skittles, Whoppers and SweeTarts candy. (10/19)

KSAT: Pharmacists Want You To Have Narcan On Hand For Accidental Opioid Overdoses
Law enforcement officers and even schools have it on hand. Now, pharmacists are urging members of the public to carry it too. (Friedman, 10/19)

Medscape: Protocol Reduces Opioid Use After Knee Or Shoulder Surgery
An opioid-sparing protocol successfully reduces the need for opioid medication after outpatient arthroscopic knee or shoulder surgery, new research suggests. (Lowry, 10/18)

And ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry says he almost died from opioid abuse —

The Mercury News: Matthew Perry Given 2% Chance Of Survival After Opioid Use Led To Coma
In a new interview with People, ahead of the publication of his memoir, the 53-year-old Perry reveals that this crisis was far more grave than previously indicated. Perry explained that his colon burst due to opioid overuse. He ended up in a coma for two weeks and was given little chance of survival. (Ross, 10/19)

The New York Times: These Doctors Admit They Don’t Want Patients With Disabilities 
The doctors also explained why they could be so eager to get rid of these patients, focusing on the shrinking amount of time doctors are allotted to spend with individual patients. “Seeing patients at a 15-minute clip is absolutely ridiculous,” one doctor said. “To have someone say, ‘Well we’re still going to see those patients with mild to moderate disability in those time frames’ — it’s just unreasonable and it’s unacceptable to me.” (Kolata, 10/19)

Also —

KHN: Blind To Problems: How VA’s Electronic Record System Shuts Out Visually Impaired Patients 
Sarah Sheffield, a nurse practitioner at a Veterans Affairs clinic in Eugene, Oregon, had a problem. Her patients — mostly in their 70s and beyond — couldn’t read computer screens. It’s not an unusual problem for older people, which is why you might think Oracle Cerner, the developers of the agency’s new digital health record system, would have anticipated it. But they didn’t. (Tahir, 10/20)

Axios: Cardiac Care Is Affected By Provider Racism, Study Finds
Black patients were less likely to be referred for and receive heart pumps and transplants than white patients, according to a new study. It’s another sign of systemic bias within the health system that could limit access to lifesaving care for vulnerable populations. (Dreher, 10/19)

In other health care industry news —

Modern Healthcare: National Academy Of Medicine Issues Report On Health Worker Burnout
The National Plan for Health Workforce Well-Being, released Wednesday, details the need for healthcare leaders, insurers, educators and government agencies to work together to reduce administrative burdens and the strain healthcare workers face on the job. (Devereaux, 10/19)

Modern Healthcare: Sutter Health Agrees To Settlement For Lab Test Billing
Sutter Health has agreed to pay more than $13 million to settle allegations of improper billing practices, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of California. (Hudson, 10/19)

Stat: Growth Of AI In Medical Image Analysis Raises Concerns About Trust
In 2018, the researcher Pranav Rajpurkar was working on an algorithm that could find blood clots in patients’ legs from ultrasound images. It spotted them very well, but when he went looking for what the algorithm had picked up on in the images to make its predictions, he saw it had been cheating: it was looking at the metadata in the top right corner of every ultrasound. (Williamson-Lee, 10/20)

KHN: Family Caregivers Find Support On #Dementia TikTok
It all changed on a Saturday night in New York City in 2016. Jacquelyn Revere was 29 and headed out to attend a friend’s comedy show. She was on the subway when her phone rang. It was a friend of her mom’s, back in Los Angeles. That’s weird, Revere thought. She never calls. “And while I was on the subway, my mom’s friend said, ‘Something is wrong with your mom,’” Revere said. “‘We don’t know what’s going on, but your mom got lost driving home. What should have been a 15-minute drive ended up taking two hours.’” (Wells, 10/20)

The New York Times: Social Security Will Now Allow People To Select Their Gender In Records 
The Social Security Administration announced on Wednesday that people will now be allowed to select the sex that best aligns with their gender identity in records, a policy change intended to be more inclusive of transgender Americans. (Medina, 10/19)

In other news about LGBTQ+ health —

NBC News: A National ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Law? Republicans Introduce Bill To Restrict LGBTQ-Related Programs
Congressional Republicans introduced what some are calling a national version of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill — or what critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. (Yurcaba and Valle, 10/19)

More health and wellness news —

Axios: Exercise Can Boost Memory
We know moving our bodies can be good for our minds, but a new study, published in Scientific Reports, demonstrates that different forms of exercise can benefit different aspects of brain function, such as memory. (Pandey, 10/19)

The Washington Post: Running Doesn’t Wreck Your Knees. It Strengthens Them.
Almost all runners, whether veterans or newcomers, poky or fleet, youthful or antique, share one bond. Someone soon will warn us that we are ruining our knees. “A lot of people think that running is bad” for knees and other joints, said Jean-Francois Esculier, a clinical professor of physical therapy at the University of British Columbia in Kelowna, who studies running. But accumulating research, including studies from Esculier and others, generally shows the reverse. (Reynolds, 10/19)

Axios: “Voice Biomarker” Tech Analyzes Your Voice For Signs Of Depression
Software that analyzes snippets of your speech to identify mental health problems is rapidly making its way into call centers, medical clinics and telehealth platforms. (Kingson, 10/20)

Detroit Free Press: Study: Michigan’s Manufacturing Base Increases Worker Risk For ALS
If you’re a welder, work on a production line or have job that involves exposure to metals, solvents or pesticides, you could be at higher risk for developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the deadly neurological disease also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, according to research from the University of Michigan. (Jordan Shamus, 10/19)

In other health news from across the U.S. —

USA Today: Seattle Air Quality Ranks Worst In The World Due To Wildfire Smoke
The air quality in Seattle was ranked worst worldwide as of 5 p.m. PST, according to IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company that monitors real-time air quality. Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, British Columbia, also ranked among the 10 worst locations for much of Wednesday, alongside cities in Pakistan, China and India. (Nguyen, 10/19)

CNN: Boy Dies From Rare Brain-Eating Amoeba That May Have Been Contracted At Lake Mead
A boy has died after being infected by a rare brain-eating amoeba, which officials believe he may have been exposed to at Lake Mead, the Southern Nevada Health District announced Wednesday. The juvenile may have encountered the organism, called Naegleria fowleri, in the park’s Kingman Wash area, located on the Arizona side of the lake near Hoover Dam, the Lake Mead National Recreation Area said in a release. (Wolfe, 10/19)

Billings Gazette: Military Members Could Lose Access To Local Pharmacies, MT Officials Call For Reversal
Active and retired Montana military members could face hours of windshield time to secure life-saving medications because of a reduction of local pharmacies covered by their health insurance, state and federal officials have warned. (Larson, 10/19)

On abortion in Montana and Texas —

KHN: 5 Things To Know About Montana’s ‘Born Alive’ Ballot Initiative
Montana voters will decide Nov. 8 whether to approve a ballot initiative declaring that an embryo or fetus is a legal person with a right to medical care if it survives an abortion or delivery. The measure would impose severe penalties on health workers who don’t provide that care. Legislative Referendum 131 was approved for next month’s election by state lawmakers in 2021, more than a year before the U.S. Supreme Court removed federal protections for abortion in June. (Volz, 10/20)

Dallas Morning News: Texas Woman Nearly Died From Infection Because Doctors Could Not Perform Legal Abortion
A Texas woman said she nearly died from a bacterial infection because doctors could not legally perform an abortion even though the fetus was no longer viable. Amanda Zurawski was 18 weeks pregnant when she felt abnormal discharge and “what felt like water running down my leg,” People magazine reported. (Bahari, 10/19)

AP: Genetic Twist: Medieval Plague May Have Molded Our Immunity
Our Medieval ancestors left us with a biological legacy: Genes that may have helped them survive the Black Death make us more susceptible to certain diseases today. It’s a prime example of the way germs shape us over time, scientists say in a new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. (Ungar, 10/19)

CNN: The Black Death Is Still Affecting The Human Immune System Today
Analysis of centuries-old DNA from both victims and survivors of the Black Death has identified key genetic differences that helped people survive the plague, according to a study published in the journal Nature. These genetic differences continue to shape human immune systems today, with genes that once conferred protection against the plague now linked to a greater vulnerability to autoimmune diseases such as Crohn’s and rheumatoid arthritis, the study said.(Hunt, 10/19)

In news about monkeypox, cholera, and salmonella —

CIDRAP: Study Shows Low Antibody Response To Monkeypox Vaccine 
A new study in Nature Medicine from a group of researchers at Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands shows a low antibody response to the two-dose Jynneos monkeypox vaccine in non-primed people, or those who had not previously received a smallpox vaccine. (Soucheray, 10/19)

Axios: WHO Switches To One-Dose Cholera Vaccine Strategy As Outbreaks Spread
The World Health Organization will temporarily switch from a two-dose cholera vaccine regimen to a one-dose approach due to an “unprecedented rise in cholera outbreaks worldwide” and a shortage in vaccine supply, the global health body said Wednesday. (Gottbrath, 10/19)

CIDRAP: Two New Multistate Salmonella Outbreaks Linked To Bearded Dragons
The CDC yesterday said it and its state health partners are investigating two multistate Salmonella outbreaks linked to pet bearded dragons. The outbreaks involve two different subtypes that have sickened 23 people in 15 states since the end of March. (10/19)

And a new rapid test can help decide if your infection is viral or bacterial —

CIDRAP: Rapid Test Could Help Distinguish Bacterial From Viral Infections 
The study evaluated the FebriDx bacterial and viral test, a disposable point-of-care immunoassay designed to detect and differentiate bacterial- from viral-associated host immune response by measuring myxovirus resistance protein (MxA) and C-reactive protein (CRP) biomarkers in finger-prick blood samples. (Dall, 10/19)

American Academy Of Pediatrics: Impact Of The 2017 FDA Drug Safety Communication On Codeine And Tramadol Dispensing To Children 
Codeine prescribing decreased after the 2013 boxed warning. The national impact of the 2017 DSC remains unknown. We examine the change in codeine and tramadol dispensing for treatment of pain to children aged <18 years after the 2017 FDA DSC. (Renny, 10/19)

New England Journal of Medicine: Two Phase 3, Randomized, Controlled Trials Of Ruxolitinib Cream For Vitiligo 
Vitiligo is a chronic autoimmune disease that causes skin depigmentation. A cream formulation of ruxolitinib (an inhibitor of Janus kinase 1 and 2) resulted in repigmentation in a phase 2 trial involving adults with vitiligo. (Rosmarin et al, 10/20)

In covid research —

New England Journal of Medicine: Evaluation Of MRNA-1273 Vaccine In Children 6 Months To 5 Years Of Age
Two 25-μg doses of the mRNA-1273 vaccine were found to be safe in children 6 months to 5 years of age and elicited immune responses that were noninferior to those in young adults. (Anderson et al, 10/19)

CIDRAP: Study: Milder COVID Cases, Lower Viral Loads In Vaccinated Frontline Workers
A study of essential and frontline workers in six US states who tested positive for COVID-19 and received two or three mRNA vaccine doses before Delta infections and three doses before Omicron infections suggests that they had significantly milder infections and lower viral loads than their unvaccinated peers. (Van Beusekom, 10/18)

CIDRAP: Study Highlights Burden Of Long COVID On Health Systems 
Researchers from ICES (formerly the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences) followed 531,702 people in Ontario starting 2 months after they were tested for COVID-19 from Jan 1, 2020, to Mar 31, 2021, a period in which COVID-19 vaccines weren’t widely available. (Van Beusekom, 10/17)

Scientific American: Fights Between U.S. States And The National Government Are Endangering Public Health 
Unfortunately, the cry for “states’ rights” today often ends up endangering health, just as it did by perpetuating the systematic racial oppression that underlies so many of today’s health inequities. (Wendy E. Parmet, 10/19)

Bloomberg: Labs Creating New Viruses And Covid Variants Need More Oversight 
Researchers at Boston University sparked alarming headlines this week by creating a more lethal version of the omicron Covid variant. (Faye Flam, 10/19)

The New York Times: We Advised Biden On The Pandemic. Much Work Remains To Face The Next Crisis 
We are nearly three years into the Covid-19 pandemic, a health crisis so long, disruptive and deadly, it should have transformed the country’s preparation for the next public health emergency. Sadly, it has not. We say this as members of President Biden’s Covid advisory board in the weeks before he took office. We have since followed and been part of the public health response to the pandemic. We are deeply dismayed by what has been left undone. (Ezekiel J. Emanuel, David Michaels, Rick Bright and Michael T. Osterholm, 10/19)

Los Angeles Times: COVID Precautions Are Fading Just As Virus Is Strengthening 
Winter is coming, and so are new COVID-19 variants. Based on the last two years, expect a botched national response when, not if, the winter surge comes. (Dipti S. Barot, 10/20)

New York Daily News: Long COVID’s Terrible Toll
It’s becoming clearer that, even in the unlikely event that we somehow, someday manage to eradicate COVID-19 and its many variants, we can’t wipe clean the enormous toll the virus has taken. (10/19)