As we speak’s early morning highlights from the key information organizations.
KHN:
When Malpractice Occurs At Community Health Centers, Taxpayers Pay
Silvia Garcia’s 14-year-old son was left completely disabled and in a wheelchair after a group well being heart physician in New Mexico did not diagnose his appendicitis regardless of his criticism of extreme abdomen ache. {The teenager}’s appendix ruptured earlier than he may get to a hospital, and problems led to septic shock. Akimbee Burns had a Pap smear at a group well being heart in Georgia that confirmed irregular cells. However she was not instructed of the outcomes. About eight months later, she was recognized with cervical most cancers that had unfold to her lymph nodes. She died inside two years, at age 38. (Galewitz and Sable-Smith, 11/28)
KHN:
Should Older Seniors Risk Major Surgery? New Research Offers Guidance
Practically 1 in 7 older adults die inside a yr of present process main surgical procedure, in accordance with an necessary new research that sheds much-needed gentle on the dangers seniors face when having invasive procedures. Particularly susceptible are older sufferers with possible dementia (33% die inside a yr) and frailty (28%), in addition to these having emergency surgical procedures (22%). Superior age additionally amplifies threat: Sufferers who had been 90 or older had been six instances as prone to die than these ages 65 to 69. (Graham, 11/28)
KHN:
Readers And Tweeters Decry Medical Billing Errors, Price-Gouging, And Barriers To Benefits
KHN offers readers an opportunity to touch upon a current batch of tales. (11/28)
CNBC:
The U.S. Is ‘Certainly’ Still In A Covid-19 Pandemic, Dr. Fauci Says
The nation’s high infectious illness skilled, Dr. Anthony Fauci, mentioned the U.S. is “definitely” nonetheless in the course of a Covid-19 pandemic and he’s “very troubled” by the divisive state of American politics. “As a public well being official, I don’t wish to see anybody endure and die from Covid,” he instructed NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. (Capoot, 11/27)
Politico:
Facing Virus Trifecta, Health Officials Project Cautious Optimism
High Biden administration well being consultants had been cautiously optimistic Sunday about their new marketing campaign for Covid-19 boosters, whilst they admitted vaccination and booster charges continued to be decrease than they need to be. “I believe we’re going to see much more folks getting vaccinated within the upcoming weeks. This is the reason we’re launching the marketing campaign we’re proper now,” Ashish Jha, coordinator of the White Home’s Covid-19 response, mentioned Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” Many individuals sometimes get flu photographs in November, December and January, Jha mentioned. (Olander, 11/27)
Politico:
Fauci On Covid Lab Leak Theory: ‘I Have A Completely Open Mind’
Anthony Fauci, the retiring high official in the US response to the Covid-19 pandemic, mentioned Sunday he has “a totally open thoughts” in regards to the origins of the respiratory virus. “I’ve a totally open thoughts about that, regardless of folks saying that I don’t,” Fauci mentioned, when requested on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in regards to the idea that the virus might have leaked from a lab in China in 2019. (Olander, 11/27)
The New York Times:
Happy Birthday, Omicron
On Nov. 26, 2021, the World Well being Group introduced {that a} regarding new variant of the coronavirus, often called Omicron, had been found in southern Africa. It quickly swept to dominance internationally, inflicting a record-breaking surge in instances. Now, a yr later, Omicron nonetheless has biologists scrambling to maintain up with its shocking evolutionary turns. The variant is quickly gaining mutations. However somewhat than a single lineage, it has exploded into a whole bunch, every with resistance to our immune defenses and its personal alphanumeric title, like XBB, BQ.1.1 and CH.1. (Zimmer, 11/26)
AP:
After A Year, Omicron Still Driving COVID Surges And Worries
A yr after omicron started its assault on humanity, the ever-morphing coronavirus mutant drove COVID-19 case counts increased in lots of locations simply as People gathered for Thanksgiving. It was a prelude to a wave that consultants count on to quickly wash over the U.S. Phoenix-area emergency doctor Dr. Nicholas Vasquez mentioned his hospital admitted a rising variety of chronically unwell folks and nursing residence residents with extreme COVID-19 this month. “It’s been fairly some time since we wanted to have COVID wards,” he mentioned. “It’s making a transparent comeback.” (Ungar, 11/25)
CBS News:
XBB Variant’s Arrival Won’t Cause A New Deadly COVID Surge, Officials Hope
The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention revealed Friday it’s now monitoring a brand new COVID-19 variant of concern across the U.S. often called XBB, which has grown to make up an estimated 3.1% of latest infections nationwide. (Tin, 11/25)
CIDRAP:
Updated COVID Boosters Add To Benefit Of Single-Strain Doses
A US research of the vaccine effectiveness (VE) of the brand new bivalent mRNA COVID-19 boosters estimates that they confer 28% to 56% extra safety towards symptomatic infections than two to 4 doses of the unique mRNA vaccines. (Van Beusekom, 11/23)
CIDRAP:
Study Shows Reinfection Protection For COVID-19 Vaccines
A brand new research out of Denmark suggests COVID-19 vaccines supply good safety towards reinfection in individuals who had already acquired the virus, generally as much as 9 months. The research, which checked out safety provided throughout the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron waves is revealed in PLOS Medication. The research inhabitants included greater than 700,000 folks. (Soucheray, 11/23)
San Francisco Chronicle:
These COVID Symptoms Are Now The Most Common As Variants Evolve
A light runny nostril, headache or sore throat may now precede a optimistic check consequence with one of many many offshoots of omicron. Different indicators generally reported throughout earlier phases of the pandemic, equivalent to lack of style and odor, have dropped down the record. (Vaziri, 11/26)
The Washington Post:
Texas Man Home For The Holidays After 453 Days In Hospital Recovering Covid
Covid-19 put life on maintain for Dub Crochet. The Bellaire, Tex., man had contracted a foul case of the coronavirus in August 2021 earlier than being confined to a hospital for months — conserving him from having fun with milestones and holidays. He missed the start of his new grandson. He wasn’t residence to host Thanksgiving dinner final yr. Nor was he out of the hospital in time to have fun his seventieth birthday. (Salcedo, 11/26)
Fox News:
Court Rejects San Diego School District’s COVID Vaccine Mandate
The California 4th District Court docket of Enchantment dominated towards the San Diego Unified Faculty District’s COVID-19 pupil vaccine requirement this week. On Tuesday, the appellate court docket agreed with a decrease court docket’s ruling from final yr that the college district doesn’t have the authority to determine its personal mandate. (Musto, 11/25)
The Washington Post:
Covid Long-Haulers Turn To Unproven Treatments In Desperation
For the burgeoning inhabitants of covid long-haulers, there’s an abundance of latest remedy choices: Specifically formulated nutraceuticals imported from India that promise to “get you life again from covid.” Pure oxygen delivered in a pressurized chamber. And, if money and time aren’t any impediment, a course of often called “blood washing” that’s accessible in Cyprus, or $25,000 stem cell remedies within the Cayman Islands. (Sellers, 11/25)
Bloomberg:
As Covid Evolves In Long-Term Infections It May Become More Harmful, Study Says
A South African laboratory research utilizing Covid-19 samples from an immunosupressed particular person over six months confirmed that the virus developed to change into extra pathogenic, indicating {that a} new variant may trigger worse sickness than the present predominant omicron pressure. (Sguazzin, 11/26)
Detroit Free Press:
2 Michigan Hospitals Appeal For More Beds To Manage RSV Surge
The flood of kids sick with respiratory syncytial virus, higher often called RSV, together with sufferers who’ve influenza and COVID-19 have led two Michigan hospitals to file emergency appeals to state well being regulators to broaden hospital mattress capability. (Jordan Shamus, 11/23)
Axios:
Anthony Fauci: RSV Cases At “Critical” Point, Hopeful Rates Decline Soon
Spiking instances of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) amongst kids are presently at a vital juncture within the U.S. however will hopefully start declining from their peak quickly, outgoing NIAID director Anthony Fauci instructed CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday. (Saric, 11/27)
NBC News:
Is It Covid, Flu Or RSV? Chart Compares Differences In Symptoms
Round 76% of U.S. hospital inpatient beds are full, in accordance with information from the Division of Well being and Human Companies. Pediatric beds are at the same stage, although six states have 90% or extra of their pediatric beds full, in accordance with an NBC Information evaluation of HHS information. (Bendix, 11/24)
Los Angeles Times:
Flu Shots Encouraged In Communities Of Color
Since October, California has had 17 flu deaths, in accordance with the state Division of Public Well being. For weeks, public well being officers have been bracing for a sickly winter that features the alarming early begin of flu season, rising COVID-19 instances and a surge of instances of respiratory syncytial virus, often called RSV. (Evans, 11/26)
Reuters:
Researchers Test MRNA Technology For Universal Flu Vaccine
An experimental vaccine supplied broad safety towards all 20 recognized influenza A and B virus subtypes in preliminary exams in mice and ferrets, probably opening a pathway to a common flu shot that may assist stop future pandemics, in accordance with a U.S. research revealed on Thursday. The 2-dose vaccine employs the identical messenger RNA (mRNA) expertise used within the COVID-19 photographs developed by Pfizer with BioNTech, and by Moderna. It delivers tiny lipid particles containing mRNA directions for cells to create replicas of so-called hemagglutinin proteins that seem on influenza virus surfaces. (Lapid, 11/25)
The Washington Post:
Measles Is ‘Imminent Threat’ Globally, WHO And CDC Warn
Measles, the preventable however extremely infectious illness, might be on the verge of a comeback after a lull within the fast months following the emergence of the coronavirus, the World Well being Group and the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention mentioned Wednesday. Calling measles an “imminent risk in each area of the world,” the 2 public well being our bodies mentioned in a report that nearly 40 million kids missed their vaccine doses final yr. (Jeong, 11/24)
AP:
WHO, CDC: A Record 40 Million Kids Miss Measles Vaccine Dose
The WHO and CDC mentioned continued drops in vaccination, weak illness surveillance and delayed response plans on account of COVID-19, along with ongoing outbreaks in additional than 20 international locations, imply that “measles is an imminent risk in each area of the world.” Scientists estimate that at the least 95% of a inhabitants must be immunized to guard towards epidemics; the WHO and the CDC reported that solely about 81% of kids obtain their first dose of measles vaccine whereas 71% get their second dose, marking the bottom international protection charges of the primary measles dose since 2008. (11/23)
AP:
Georgia High Court Reinstates Ban On Abortions After 6 Weeks
The Georgia Supreme Court docket on Wednesday reinstated the state’s ban on abortions after roughly six weeks of being pregnant, abruptly ending entry to later abortions that had resumed days earlier. In a one-page order, the justices put a decrease court docket ruling overturning the ban on maintain whereas they contemplate an enchantment. Medical doctors who had resumed offering abortions after six weeks needed to instantly cease. (Thanawala, 11/23)
Stateline:
Abortion Advocates Aim To Outflank Lawmakers Using 2024 Ballot Measures
Inspired by six victories — and nil defeats — on this month’s midterm elections, abortion rights advocates are contemplating one other spherical of poll measures in 2024 that will enshrine reproductive freedom in state constitutions. (Vestal, 11/23)
Becker’s Hospital Review:
Blood Bag Shortage Complicates Collection Efforts
Blood bag shortages nationwide, notably for the one common blood kind, O-negative, has been inflicting organizations to difficulty an pressing enchantment to donors, a number of sources report. The Arkansas Blood Institute reported dropping a whole bunch of models of Kind O-negative blood a month due to current blood bag shortages. (Schoonover, 11/23)
Becker’s Hospital Review:
Mark Cuban In Talks With Hospitals To Solve Drug Shortages
Mark Cuban is in talks with hospitals to determine generic medicine that usually run in brief provide, which he goals to make in a robotics-driven manufacturing plant presently in improvement in Dallas. Mr. Cuban appeared on the Motley Idiot podcast Nov. 23 with host Chris Hill to speak about disrupting healthcare, which Price Plus Medicine has managed to do since its institution in Might 2020. (Gamble, 11/23)
CIDRAP:
AAP Issues Guidance On Alternatives To In-Shortage Amoxicillin
Amid a scarcity of the antibiotic amoxicillin, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has issued steering on alternate options to the oral powder formulation for suspension in its Pink Guide On-line. (11/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
World’s Top-Selling Drug Going Off Patent Means Big Bucks For Middlemen
Beginning subsequent yr the highest-grossing drug of all time, AbbVie‘s Humira, will lastly face competitors from copycat biologics within the U.S. But the makers of the advanced generics often called biosimilars gained’t essentially be the largest winners. The highest beneficiaries may as an alternative be the middlemen equivalent to Cigna and CVS Well being, which is able to negotiate and dispense the medicine to sufferers. (Wainer, 11/27)
Stat:
Former Merck CEO: Democracy, The Drug Industry Are In Danger
Ken Frazier, the previous chief govt of Merck, has been the preeminent pharmaceutical CEO of his period. He’s additionally seemingly essentially the most outstanding CEO to have spoken out towards the previous president, Donald Trump. (Herper, 11/28)
Politico:
Cannabis Banking Supporters Scramble To Reach Lame-Duck Deal
Urgency is constructing within the Senate to get hashish laws handed earlier than the yr is over. The specter of a Republican-led Home has lit a fireplace below proponents of hashish banking laws, in accordance with three Home and Senate staffers concerned in discussions on either side of the aisle. (Fertig, 11/23)
The Boston Globe:
Medical Marijuana For Kids? These Moms Sought It Out — And Say Any Parent Would Have Done The Same
To most dad and mom, the concept of giving marijuana to their underage kids is just unimaginable. However a couple of say they’d no different alternative. (Adams, 11/25)
Becker’s Hospital Review:
Florida Hospital CEO Resigns In Wake Of Arrest
Kidada Hawkins, who took over as president of Winter Haven (Fla.) Hospital earlier this yr, has resigned amid allegations that he solicited for prostitution, The Ledger reported Nov. 23. Clearwater, Fla.-based BayCare Well being System named Mr. Hawkins president of its Winter Haven and Winter Haven Ladies’s hospitals in early 2022. (Gooch, 11/23)
AP:
South Carolina Hospital Wing Becomes New Inmate Hospital
A wing of an deserted rural hospital in South Carolina’s Chester County has been remodeled right into a well being facility for inmates that might begin accepting sufferers earlier than the tip of the yr. The $3.3 million challenge by the state’s Division of Corrections over the previous few years has fortified the brand new wing with jail bars, specifically secured doorways and cameras all through the constructing. The transfer offers the state Division of Corrections a medical useful resource whereas on the identical time saves a group hospital from disappearing. (11/25)
Los Angeles Times:
New Life Planned For Mothballed LA Landmark General Hospital
Unchanged for the reason that final affected person left Los Angeles County Normal Hospital 14 years in the past, the working room encapsulates the wealthy alternatives and big challenges for an establishment that grew to become too outdated and decrepit to go on because it was however is an excessive amount of of a civic treasure to discard. (Smith and Campa, 11/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
State AG Rob Bonta Investigates Hospital Algorithms For Racial Bias
California Legal professional Normal Rob Bonta sailed to victory within the Nov. 8 election, using his progressive document on reproductive rights, gun management, and social justice reform. As he charts a course for his subsequent 4 years, the 50-year-old Democrat needs to focus on racial discrimination in well being care, together with by means of an investigation of software program packages and decision-making instruments utilized by hospitals to deal with sufferers. (Kreidler, 11/27)
AP:
Wisconsin Board: UW Health Not Required To Recognize Union
A Wisconsin labor relations fee has dominated that the UW Well being hospital system won’t be required to acknowledge a nurses union or interact in collective bargaining negotiations. The Wisconsin Employment Relations Fee in its Friday ruling discovered that UW Well being was exempted from collective bargaining legal guidelines as a result of the nurses are public staff below Act 10 — a 2011 legislation handed below former Republican Gov. Scott Walker. (11/26)
USA Today:
Seeing A Migraine? MRI Shows What The Condition Does To The Brain
When analyzing the outcomes of the scans, researchers seen these with continual or episodic migraines had a lot enlarged perivascular areas – the fluid-filled areas that encompass blood vessels within the mind and clear the world of waste – in contrast to those who haven’t got migraines. (Mendoza, 11/24)
The Boston Globe:
MIT Scientists Invent Technology To Replace Broken Genes Or Upload New Ones
Researchers on the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise have developed a brand new gene modifying expertise that they are saying can “drag-and-drop” giant sequences of DNA into the human genome. (Cross, 11/24)
NPR:
Green Sprouts Sippy Cups Recalled Over Lead Poisoning Risk
The voluntary recall, issued final week, impacts about 10,500 models, in accordance with an alert on the U.S. Client Product Security Fee’s web site. The recall applies to the Inexperienced Sprouts 6-ounce Stainless Metal Sippy Cup, Sip & Straw Cup and its 8-ounce Stainless Metal Straw Bottle. (Bowman, 11/28)
NPR:
Schools Closed, Boil Water Notice Issued In Houston After Water Plant Lost Power
Houston is below a boil water discover after an influence outage precipitated low water stress throughout town, in accordance with Houston Public Works. Energy went out at a water purification plant at about 10:30 a.m Sunday. Energy and water pressures have since been restored, however the boil water discover continues to be in impact. (Archie, 11/28)
USA Today:
FDA Warns Against Eating Oysters In 13 States Over Sapovirus Risk
The Meals and Drug Administration mentioned this week it’s advising customers to not eat, and eating places and different retailers to not promote, Dai One Meals Co. frozen half shell oysters which have a harvest date of Feb. 6, 2022. The South Korean agency has recalled oyster merchandise from “the identical harvest space,” in accordance with the FDA. (Pitofsky, 11/25)
Houston Chronicle:
Researchers Investigate Drug Addiction At Houston Brain Bank
Alana Bradley darted round a UTHealth Science Middle laboratory on a depressing November afternoon, gathering provides — gloves, robe, a pen-sized biopsy instrument and a blue icebox — for the morbid activity forward. A textual content flashes on the 26-year-old analysis assistant’s cellphone, from a health care provider on the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. (Gill, 11/25)
AP:
Pertussis Rates Plummet In Maine Amid Precautions, New Law
The speed of pertussis has fallen sharply in Maine, which not way back had one of many highest charges of the infectious illness within the nation. Pertussis can also be referred to as whooping cough and it’s an an infection that causes a extreme, hacking cough and might be particularly harmful to infants. Maine had the second-highest price of the illness within the U.S. in 2019 at greater than 28 instances per 100,000 residents. (11/26)
AP:
Arizona Saw An Increase In Child Deaths During 2021
Drownings, baby neglect and firearms contributed to a rise in baby deaths in Arizona throughout 2021, marking the very best price of kid deaths within the final 10 years, in accordance with an annual report issued by the state. The assessment launched earlier this month by the state Baby Fatality Evaluation Program mentioned Arizona’s baby mortality price elevated by 4.7% from 51 deaths per 100,000 kids in 2020 to 53.4 deaths per 100,000 kids in 2021, The Arizona Republic reported. (11/26)
CNN:
Improve Memory As You Age By Eating More Flavonols, Study Says
Consuming extra flavonols, antioxidants discovered in lots of greens, fruits, tea and wine, might sluggish your price of reminiscence loss, a brand new research finds. The cognitive rating of individuals within the research who ate essentially the most flavonols declined 0.4 models per decade extra slowly than those that ate the fewest flavonols. The outcomes held even after adjusting for different elements that may have an effect on reminiscence, equivalent to age, intercourse and smoking, in accordance with the research lately revealed in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. (LaMotte, 11/28)
CNN:
Secrets Of ‘SuperAgers’ With Superior Memories Into Their 80s
Regardless of volunteering and understanding on the health club a number of days every week, socializing incessantly with family and friends, studying all method of books and doing each day crossword puzzles, 85-year-old Carol Siegler is stressed. “I’m bored. I really feel like a Corvette getting used as a grocery cart,” mentioned Siegler, who lives within the Chicago suburb of Palatine. (LaMotte, 11/27)
The Washington Post:
Can Exercise Keep Parkinson’s Disease At Bay?
Retired operating coach Bob Sevene, 79, struggled after his 2019 Parkinson’s illness prognosis. The longtime runner abruptly started leaning to the suitable and was unable to straighten up. He began sporting a again brace and utilizing a walker. A yr in the past, Sevene started twice-weekly train courses designed for Parkinson’s sufferers that embrace high-intensity bouts of noncontact boxing. He additionally began each day 25-minute pace periods on a stationary bike and operating transient sprints within the hallway outdoors his condominium. (Cimons, 11/26)
That is a part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a abstract of well being coverage protection from main information organizations. Join an email subscription.