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Criminalizing a woman for suffering a miscarriage seems unfathomable and even barbaric. But that is exactly what happened earlier this month in a Lawton, Okla., courtroom. When Brittney Poolaw, a Oklahoma woman, miscarried at her home in January 2020, she was taken to a hospital where she told staff that she had used methamphetamine and marijuana during her pregnancy. Two months later, she was charged with first-degree manslaughter. Her pregnancy was 17 weeks along. (10/22)

­Not long ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ran alarming news about the outbreak of lung injuries associated with vaping. It confirmed in 2020 that at least 68 people who used e-cigarettes, both legally and illegally, had died. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, electric cigarettes are bad for your heart and lungs and just as addictive as traditional cigarettes. Yet last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the first time authorized the sale of electronic tobacco-flavored cigarettes. What is most shocking is that the government is allowing this to happen during a pandemic in which smokers and vapers may be at higher risk for getting severe coronavirus disease. (Susan Shapiro, 10/21)

If years could be assigned a dominant feeling (1929: despair; 2008: hope), 2021’s might be exhaustion. As the coronavirus pandemic rumbles through its 20th month, many of us feel like we are running a race we didn’t sign up for, and it’s getting longer every mile we run. (Jamil Zaki, 10/21)

Death rattle. That’s the sound some dying people make, caused by a buildup of mucus and other secretions in the throat as the body begins to slowly lose its life force. It can sound wet and crackling, or like a soft moan or snoring or gargling. No one knows if a dying person finds the death rattle disturbing or distressing, as no one can pretend to know with certainty the inner subjective experience of anyone too ill to express it. The common medical assumption, though, is that they are not distressed by it. But the death rattle is disturbing to family members and loved ones who are with their loved ones as they are dying. (Joel B. Zivot and Ira Bedzow, 10/21)

I have never died. But as an oncologist, I have witnessed many patients’ last breaths. When I attend in the hospital, I am sometimes called to “pronounce” a death. The ritual surpasses strange. (Tyler Johnson, 10/21)

The tragedies that unfolded in the Michigan cities of Flint and Benton Harbor should serve as a wake-up call for Chicago to replace the over 400,000 lead service lines that bring drinking water to homes every day. If Chicago continues at its current pace, it’ll take us over 600 years to get those lead pipes out of the ground. We can’t afford to have one more generation of Chicagoans threatened by toxic lead in their drinking water. (Jeremy Orr and James Coyne, 10/21)

The tech world has revolutionized nearly everything we do—from the way we work, shop and travel to the way we consume news and information. Yet transforming the way we access healthcare—one of the most essential services in our lives—continues to elude the tech giants. (Dr. Rod Hochman, 10/21)