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The Biden administration is planning to accelerate the delivery of its remaining supply of monkeypox vaccines and will make an additional 1.8 million doses available for ordering starting Monday, officials said Thursday. Jurisdictions will only be able to access the additional doses if they adopt the new intradermal administration of vaccine and have used 90 percent of their current supply of vaccine, officials said. (Weixel, 8/18)

The U.S. is setting aside an extra 50,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine for places with upcoming gay pride events, health officials said Thursday. The number of doses sent to each place will be based on factors like the size of the event, how many health workers will be available to give shots, and how many of the attendees are considered at highest risk for catching the virus. (Stobbe, 8/18)

White House officials on Thursday touted steps to expand access to monkeypox vaccines, including a deal to finish 2.5 million vials in the United States. Although some local health officials applauded the moves, others were unnerved by a rapid plan to stretch existing supply by splitting vaccine doses into fifths, clamoring for more time to examine the data and train providers to deliver the shots correctly. The Biden administration is “forcing our hand,” said one local health official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to jeopardize vaccine orders. “It’s extraordinarily frustrating because we have to execute and defend this strategy … it’s just a question of giving us the time and the doses to bridge to that strategy.” (Diamond and Nirappil, 8/18)

James Krellenstein, a founder of PrEP4All, an advocacy group for H.I.V. patient care, called Thursday’s announcement about the distribution of vaccine doses “a complete accounting trick.” Activists also say the new protocol could exacerbate existing racial disparities and signal to people of color that they might be getting a lesser dose, despite health officials’ approval. “Once it starts becoming equitable, now it’s not, ‘We’ll give you the dosage that everyone was getting prior,’ it’s, ‘We’ll give you the shorter doses,’” said Jennifer Barnes-Balenciaga, a Black transgender woman who is helping to lead RESPND-MI, an epidemiological study on monkeypox. (Stolberg, Otterman and Mandavilli, 8/18)

Top U.S. health officials have known for years that the country’s Strategic National Stockpile did not have enough doses of a smallpox vaccine that is now key to the monkeypox fight, according to three former senior officials and a current official working on the monkeypox response. The U.S. has stockpiled Jynneos, the vaccine by Bavarian Nordic, which is also being used to combat monkeypox. The U.S. never had the money to purchase the millions of doses that experts felt were necessary, the officials said. (Banco and Collis, 8/18)

The administration also announced Thursday it will expand its supply of the antiviral treatment tecovirimat, sold under the brand name TPOXX, by 50,000 doses. Allocation will be based on the number of cases in an area and the number of individuals at high risk of contracting the virus, including those who are living with HIV. (Stanton, 8/18)

Even though the drug is free, accessing Tpoxx requires providers to fill out a slew of paperwork and schedule multiple follow-up appointments with patients—a process that takes time and resources. (Bugos, 8/18)

As demand for monkeypox vaccines increases, the World Health Organization (WHO) has begun to receive preliminary reports on the efficacy of the shots, which suggests there are breakthrough cases occurring, officials said Wednesday. "We have known from the beginning that this vaccine would not be a silver bullet, that it would not meet all the expectations that are being put on it, and that we don't have firm efficacy data or effectiveness data in this context," officials said during a press conference. (Mitropoulos, 8/17)

Such cases provide “important information that tells us the vaccine is not 100% effective in any given circumstance,” Dr. Rosamund Lewis, the WHO’s technical lead on monkeypox, said at a press conference. Breakthrough infections have occurred when the vaccine was given before exposure to high-risk individuals, as well as when it was given after exposure in hopes of preventing infection, Lewis said. (Prater, 8/18)

The only approved vaccine for monkeypox is from developer Bavarian Nordic and is being used as both a preventative vaccine, as well as to protect people recently exposed to the virus. ... There is limited data on the efficacy of the vaccine, and what is available has been drawn from animal studies. The main study used to indicate efficacy dates back to the 1980s and looked at a different type of smallpox vaccine — potentially more powerful than the safer vaccines that have since been developed. That study showed 85 percent protection against monkeypox. (Furlong, 8/17)

Smallpox vaccinations may not protect against monkeypox for life, research suggests, with experts saying HIV may play a role in eroding protection from the jab over time. ... Dr. Oriol Mitja, co-author of the research, said that since most participants who had been vaccinated against smallpox received the jab more than 45 years ago, it is reasonable to predict that their protection would have waned. “All I can say is that childhood vaccinations may not protect 100% for life,” he said. (Davis, 8/15)

As monkeypox spreads across the country, new data suggests a worrying trend: Black and Latino men who have sex with men are far more likely to catch the virus than their white counterparts. While the numbers are limited, they are stark. Nearly 28 percent of monkeypox cases in the U.S. right now are among Black individuals, and 33 percent are among Hispanic people, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said on Thursday, despite those groups only comprising 13.6 and 18.9 percent of the population, respectively. (Messerly and Mahr, 8/18)

The number of monkeypox infections continues to rise in Colorado, but new state data shows evidence that Black and Latino communities have been hit harder. (Ingold, 8/18)

The Louisiana Department of Health released new data showing a demographic breakdown of the state's monkeypox cases. According to state health officials, early data shows striking racial disparities in cases. LDH confirms that nearly 60 percent of the cases in Louisiana have been reported among Black Louisianans, and 27 percent have been reported in White Louisiana residents. According to LDH, 95 percent of the cases are from male patients. (8/18)

Concerns are mounting that the window of opportunity for containing the escalating monkeypox outbreak may be closing, with vaccine shortages leaving some at-risk groups waiting weeks to get jabbed. (Gilchrist, 8/19)

"We are definitely in what we're still calling 'The Hunger Games' phase of this – where there's nowhere near enough doses for the demand," says Dr. Mark Del Beccaro, Assistant Deputy Chief for Public Health – Seattle & King County. Already facing the expected logistical hurdles of running a vaccine campaign in a public health emergency, health officials now have to tackle another challenge: how to squeeze five doses out of single-dose vials. (Stone and Huang, 8/19)

KHN: Local Health Officials To Feds: Where’s The Rest Of Our Monkeypox Vaccine? 

Los Angeles County health officials found out Tuesday that the federal government slashed the county’s requested and expected monkeypox vaccine allotment by 60%. Last week, the FDA told health care providers to split a one-dose vial of the monkeypox vaccine into five doses. The shift was good news for vaccine-strapped cities throughout the country because it meant what little supply is available could be stretched much further. (Fortier, 8/18)

A study today in Eurosurveillance shows 70% of surveyed men who have sex with men (MSM) in the Netherlands said they intended to vaccinate against monkeypox, and 44% showed high intention for self-isolation after diagnosis. The online survey, however, showed the challenges of self-diagnosis, with only 52.3% of participants able to correctly identify a picture of monkeypox lesions on the face. Participants were asked to view images of monkeypox, Staphylococcus infection, stage 2 syphilis infections, or eczema. (Soucheray, 8/18)

Kentucky’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state’s near-total abortion ban will remain in place while it reviews arguments by abortion clinics challenging two state laws. It was the latest legal setback for the two remaining abortion clinics in Kentucky — both in Louisville, the state’s largest city. The state’s highest court kept in place a recent lower court ruling that reimposed enforcement of the laws banning nearly all abortions in Kentucky. (Schreiner and Lovan, 8/18)

An Arizona judge will hear arguments Friday on the state’s request to allow prosecutors to enforce a near-total ban on abortions under a law that has been blocked for nearly 50 years under a now-overruled U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Abortion-rights advocates are fighting the request from Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich to lift an injunction blocking enforcement of the ban on abortions unless the mother’s life is in danger. That law was first enacted decades before Arizona was granted statehood in 1912 and blocked following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade legalizing abortion. (Christie, 8/18)

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra is promising that the federal government will do what it can to protect abortion rights in states like Arizona, where access to the procedure has become more limited since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. “We have an obligation to make sure that care does not disappear, and so whether you’re in Arizona, or California, or Texas, if you need care, we want to make sure you get it,” Becerra said during a visit to a Phoenix Planned Parenthood clinic Thursday. (8/18)

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt relied on an unconstitutional law when he sued the City of St. Louis to block it from using federal funds to support access to abortion, an attorney for the city argued in a counterclaim filed Wednesday. The lawsuit, which has been moved to federal court, centers on legislation that established a Reproductive Equity Fund. (Hancock, 8/18)

More St. Louis County residents will soon be able to get free or low-cost birth control. Patients can already access same-day birth control services, but new federal money will help county clinics have more contraceptives on-hand, said Department of Public Health spokesman Chris Ave. (Landis, 8/18)

A manufacturer of the drug used in medication abortions on Thursday dropped its bid to sell mifepristone in Mississippi despite the state's recently enacted abortion ban. GenBioPro Inc said it was voluntarily dismissing its case in a filing in federal court in Jackson. The company had argued that federal regulators' approval of mifepristone to induce abortion at up to 10 weeks of pregnancy overrode the state's prohibition on nearly all abortions. (Pierson, 8/18)

Tampa City Council passed a resolution 5-2 Thursday, that would support a person’s right to privacy when it comes to getting an abortion. However, it was not the resolution proposed by the lone city councilwoman. Tampa city councilwoman Lynn Hurtak proposed a resolution and so did the city’s legal department. (Clemmons, 8/18)

The Federal Trade Commission is threatening to sue an adtech company it alleges reveals people’s visits to sensitive locations, including women’s reproductive health clinics, according to a lawsuit against the agency. The agency’s proposed complaint, against Idaho-based Kochava, argues the company violates laws that prohibit “unfair or deceptive practices” by allowing its customers to license data collected from mobile devices that can identify people and track their visits to health-care providers. (Zakrzewski, 8/18)

Heartbeat’s information represents a “data honey pot,” said Johnny Lin, chief technology officer at Lockdown Privacy, a company that offers to block apps from tracking users. He worries that information about women who inquire about reversing an abortion pill would be valuable for prosecutors in states where the procedure is illegal. (Murphy, 8/18)

A coalition of northeast Connecticut residents is calling on state officials to deny a Catholic health system’s proposal to acquire Day Kimball Hospital in rural Putnam, citing potential restrictions the new owner could place on reproductive health and emergency contraception, as well as gender-affirming, end-of-life and other care. (Phillips, 8/18)

The advocacy group Floridians for Reproductive Freedom says state-based corporations, including health care companies, have donated $1.7 million to anti-abortion lawmakers. (Carter, 8/18)

More than 650 workers at Alphabet, Google’s parent company, have signed a letter addressed to the company’s leadership demanding contractors be given the same abortion benefits as full-time employees in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, said the union that represents around 1,100 people at the company. (DiFeliciantonio, 8/18)

When the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortions in June, Destiny Adams felt the country was taking a step backward. So she decided to push her small West Texas town a step forward. To do her part, Adams began leaving free emergency contraception kits neatly packed in white plastic bags in the bathroom of her coffeehouse, Tumbleweed + Sage. (Lozano, 8/18)

As abortion bans shutter clinics across the country, "crisis pregnancy centers" led by anti-abortion advocates see an opening to expand into the reproductive care void. (Gonzalez, 8/19)

When news hit that abortions were going to be nearly totally banned in several states, it was reported across the U.S. that calls for vasectomy appointments were increasing. While many men were quoted saying they were doing it for their significant other or because they had no interest in having kids, Twitter was filled with suggestions, both serious and not, that men should be forced to get vasectomies. (Muñoz, 8/19)

KHN: Indiana’s New Abortion Ban May Drive Some Young OB-GYNs To Leave A State Where They’re Needed 

On a Monday morning, a group of obstetrics and gynecology residents, dressed in blue scrubs and white coats, gathered in an auditorium at Indiana University School of Medicine. After the usual updates and announcements, Dr. Nicole Scott, the residency program director, addressed the elephant in the room. “Any more abortion care questions?” she asked the trainees. After a few moments of silence, one resident asked: “How’s Dr. Bernard doing?” “Bernard is actually in really good spirits — I mean, relatively,” Scott answered. “She has 24/7 security, has her own lawyer.” They were talking about Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indiana OB-GYN who provides abortions and trains residents at the university hospital. (Yousry, 8/19)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) expressed doubt that the Republican Party could gain a majority in the upper chamber in the midterm elections. He cited "candidate quality" as a reason the GOP could struggle as it hopes to flip several swing seats and ward off Democratic bids for vulnerable Republican seats. ... McConnell has been cautious about heralding a red wave before it comes. In April, he remarked that although the political environment looked like a "perfect storm" of problems for Democrats, it was "actually possible" that Republicans could "screw this up." (Aabram, 8/18)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is warning that the GOP may not win back control of the Senate in November’s midterm elections — a cycle that typically would be favorable to the party not in power — as a political action committee linked to McConnell stages a rescue effort in the Ohio Senate race. Asked Wednesday by reporters in Kentucky about his midterm predictions, McConnell said there’s “probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate.” (Wang and Alfaro, 8/18)

A super PAC tied to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell came to the rescue of J.D. Vance, the struggling Senate Republican candidate in Ohio, a state Democrat Joe Biden lost by 8 points in 2020. The National Republican Senatorial Committee resorted to cutting and shifting ad spending to preserve resources, as many of their candidates trail their Senate Democratic opponents in fundraising. And election forecasters altered their view of a crucial contest in Pennsylvania in favor of Democrats. ... Democrats have benefited from a recent burst of legislative activity, including signing a sweeping bill to lower prescription drug prices and carbon emissions into law. (Rogers, Zanona and Wright, 8/18)

When JD Vance founded “Our Ohio Renewal” a day after the 2016 presidential election, he promoted the charity as a vehicle for helping solve the scourge of opioid addiction that he had lamented in “Hillbilly Elegy,” his bestselling memoir. But Vance shuttered the nonprofit last year and its foundation in May, shortly after clinching the state’s Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, according to state records reviewed by The Associated Press. An AP review found that the charity’s most notable accomplishment — sending an addiction specialist to Ohio’s Appalachian region for a yearlong residency — was tainted by ties among the doctor, the institute that employed her and Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin. (Smyth, 8/18)

A special election here next week could offer Democrats a preview of the pain coming their way in November. Or it could provide powerful evidence that a Republican wave election is not in the offing. Both parties are dumping money into this Hudson Valley district to notch a short-lived but symbolic victory in the last competitive race before the midterms. The winner will succeed Democrat Antonio Delgado for just a few months. But the messaging, turnout and margin of the contest will offer tea leaves into what lies ahead this fall in the battle for control of the House. For Democrats, a win would offer proof that the party can translate their recent legislative victories and voter anger over the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling into tangible gains. (Mutnick and Ferris, 8/19)

For decades, Republicans appealed to conservative voters — and donors — with broad condemnation of abortion. But the Supreme Court’s decision is forcing Republicans from state legislatures to Congress to the campaign trail to articulate more specifically what that opposition means, sometimes creating division over where the party should stand. (Fingerhut and Bauer, 8/18)

Two House Democrats facing tough re-election bids are defending their party's expansion of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that was included in the Sen. Joe Manchin-backed Inflation Reduction Act, which does little to immediately address inflation. (Morris, 8/18)

Democratic lawmakers, members of President Biden’s Cabinet, and allied organizers and activists are kicking off a multipronged public relations campaign aimed at ensuring voters understand — and appreciate the benefits of — the $700-billion climate-change and drug-prices bill that Biden signed Tuesday. (Stokol and Vega, 8/19)

The administration released state-by-state projections as it begins touting its signature climate and health care spending package, which Democrats in Congress passed last week and the president signed into law Tuesday. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said the health care measures alone will have profound impacts for millions of Americans struggling to keep up with soaring prescription drug costs. (Blackman, 8/18)

For consumers in California, $9 billion is available for home energy rebates and 10 years of tax credits for appliances that are energy efficient. To start lowering the ever-increasing smog levels in this public-transportation-poor state, the bill offers up to $4,000 in tax credits for used clean-energy vehicles for low- and middle-income individuals and families. (Yamamura, 8/18)

Still, Medicare’s authority to now negotiate drug prices is an “indictment” of PBMs, which are supposed to manage costs for Medicare Part D enrollees, said Antonio Ciaccia, president of 3 Axis Advisors. Government officials, "through their actions, are saying, ‘You guys, we’re cutting it, and we can do better.' So from a PBM perspective, I think that this, in some ways, undercuts their value,” he said. (Berryman, 8/18)

As the calendar pushed closer to the Nov. 1 open enrollment date, Sara Cariano was growing nervous about her work helping people across Virginia sign up for subsidized, private health insurance on the HealthCare.gov website. “I expected very difficult conversation with folks to explain why their premiums were spiking,” said Cariano, a policy specialist at the Virginia Poverty Law Center. But the passage of the “Inflation Reduction Act” erased those worries. (Seitz, 8/19)

But not everyone will feel the benefits of the new bill equally, analysts and advocates warn. People living in neighborhoods that are already dealing with a lot of pollution fear they will face more harm and climate risk, not less. And that could deepen existing environmental inequalities and lock in decades of unnecessary illness and suffering for people who are already marginalized. (Hersher, 8/17)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Wrapping Up Summer’s Health News 

Congress and President Joe Biden are officially on summer vacation, but they left behind a lot of health policy achievements. The president returned this week from his South Carolina beach retreat to sign the Inflation Reduction Act, which, among other things, allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices for the first time. (8/18)

The Biden administration is planning for an end to its practice of paying for Covid-19 shots and treatments, shifting more control of pricing and coverage to the healthcare industry in ways that could generate sales for companies—and costs for consumers—for years to come. The Department of Health and Human Services intends to hold a planning session on Aug. 30 that would bring together representatives from drugmakers, pharmacies and state health departments with a stake in a Covid-19 treatment industry. (Armour, 8/18)

In a recent interview with TheGrio, Fauci, who is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, urged the Black community to get a Covid booster shot in preparation of the fall surge, when the Covid infection rates are expected to rise. He said that the Food and Drug Administration will soon authorize an updated booster shot, known as the bivalent BA.5 vaccine, which is a closer match to the circulating Omicron variants of Covid. (Bellamy, 8/18)

At the start of the new school year, the Bay Area boasts some of California’s highest rates of childhood vaccination against COVID-19, providing parents some comfort as the virus continues circulating. But even the region’s strong showing has gaps in protection, with room for improvement to keep students safe, health experts say. (Vaziri and Neilson, 8/18)

Two Cumberland County parents who haven’t vaccinated their 7-year-old son for religious reasons want a judge to declare Maine’s school vaccination requirements unconstitutional. (Loftus, 8/18)

Instagram and Facebook suspended Children’s Health Defense this week after the anti-vaccine group led by Robert Kennedy Jr. repeatedly violated rules prohibiting misinformation about COVID-19.A nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense is one of the most influential anti-vaccine organizations active on social media, where it has spread misleading claims about vaccines and other public health measures designed to control the pandemic. (Klepper, 8/18)

A phase 3 randomized, controlled trial published today in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that three drugs repurposed for the treatment of COVID-19—metformin, ivermectin, and fluvoxamine—didn't prevent hypoxemia, an emergency department (ED) visit, hospitalization, or infection-related death, although a secondary analysis finds that metformin may hold some promise. (Van Beusekom, 8/18)

Like many people who are Black, Kimani Toussaint was concerned when he learned that the pulse oximeters relied on so heavily by physicians to treat and monitor Covid-19 patients didn’t work as well on darker-skinned patients. (McFarling, 8/19)

During the first coronavirus wave, the 20783 Zip code, which includes the Langley Park neighborhood where Espinoza has lived for more than two decades, had the highest infection rate in the state: 2,671 cases by August 2020. The coronavirus is still an issue in the area — as of Thursday there have been 9,173 cases in Zip code 20783, according to Maryland Department of Health data — but cases are probably undercounted, as many fall ill more than once but don’t seek medical care or testing. Seventy percent of this Zip code’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, but some neighbors said they are still hesitant or fearful of getting a second dose or a booster. (Sanchez, 8/18)

States would be required for the first time to report on the quality of healthcare Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program beneficiaries receive under a proposed rule published Thursday. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services believes that mandatory reporting would promote equity and consistent use of standardized quality measures, and would identify disparities among Medicaid and CHIP enrollees, the draft rule says. (Devereaux and Goldman, 8/18)

Home health providers have set the stage for a legal fight if the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalizes a proposal to cut home health Medicare reimbursement by 4.2% next year. In comment letters to CMS, home health association leaders included findings from law firms hired to analyze the draft policy—though the leaders say it's too early to discuss taking legal action. (Goldman, 8/18)

A quarter of healthcare data leaks were intentionally caused by employees, according to a recent global survey of 1,300 health IT professionals by software company Soti. Seventy percent of healthcare organizations have experienced a data breach since 2020, the July study found. Cybersecurity has become an increasing concern of healthcare organizations, at a time when each breach costs health systems several million dollars. (Bruce, 8/18)

Maven Clinic, the largest virtual clinic for family health, is expanding its services to include a dedicated program for menopause and ongoing care, the company announced Tuesday. Businesses can now offer their employees the specialized program, which includes nearly 1 million lives across 40 employers. (Gliadkovskaya, 8/17)

Government health insurance provider Centene Corp. said Thursday it no longer plans to create an East Coast campus in Charlotte, North Carolina, a project first announced in 2020 and already under construction. The St. Louis-based managed care company said it was pulling back because of the number of its employees who now prefer working from home or in a hybrid situation, a company spokesperson told The Charlotte Observer. (8/18)

Fifty mental healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente sites in Hawaii plan to join colleagues in Northern California in an open-ended strike over access to care. Hawaii workers will strike Aug. 29, according to a news release from the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents the psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and chemical dependency counselors. Two thousand mental health workers in California began a strike Monday. (Christ, 8/18)

At Door County Medical Center, three nurses have been waiting to get their license from the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services since May. One is an ICU nurse, one will work in the emergency room and the third, officials there say, is a nurse practitioner currently being paid to do tasks well below her level of education and ability while waiting for her application to be processed. (Hess, 8/18)

BHSH System, the parent company of Beaumont Health and Spectrum Health, announced Thursday it will provide $20 million to Oakland University to educate nurses in the hopes of alleviating a shortage. (Walsh, 8/18)

US Attorney Rachael S. Rollins has vowed to “ensure equal protection of transgender people under the law” in response to threats and harassment against doctors and other staff at Boston Children’s Hospital who provide care for transgender children. (Fox, 8/18)

In interviews and at public town halls, more than two dozen current and former employees described a department that has been stretched thin for more than a year, needlessly losing passionate workers who carry decades of experience and knowledge. From dangerous overtime shifts watching children in hotels to political drama to problems with their supervisors, workers say the agency has lost its mission — and in the end, it’s Texas kids who suffer for it. (Harris, 8/18)

KHN: For Kids With Kidney Disease, Pediatric Expertise Is Key — But Not Always Close By

Jaxon Green, 6, was diagnosed with kidney disease the day he was born. His illness meant that for years his life would depend on daily dialysis. And because his family lives in Tamaqua, a rural Pennsylvania town, his diagnosis also meant taking frequent two-hour trips to Philadelphia to see the closest pediatric nephrologist — even though an adult dialysis center was just five minutes from their home. Pediatric kidney care is not as simple as prescribing small doses of adult medication, said Dr. Sandra Amaral, the lead researcher for a study published by JAMA this month. It’s important for children with kidney disease — especially end-stage kidney disease, or ESKD — to receive specialized care, but pediatric nephrology is a niche field. On top of that, specialists are not spread out evenly across the country. (DeGuzman, 8/19)

Nearly two-thirds of community pharmacies had trouble ordering the popular attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder drug Adderall at the end of July and beginning of August, at a time when demand is at all-time highs. (Swetlitz, 8/18)

Opioid maker Endo International and its lenders reached a settlement with 36 states in its bankruptcy filings, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha announced Thursday. In all, the plan could provide a total of up to $450 million to participating states. (Gagosz, 8/18)

It is minoxidil, an old and well-known hair-loss treatment drug used in a very different way. Rather than being applied directly to the scalp, it is being prescribed in very low-dose pills. (Kolata, 8/18)

Richard Horgan has waited for this moment for more than three years. Last month, the Food and Drug Administration granted permission for his younger brother Terry, 27, who lives with muscular dystrophy, to receive a first-of-its-kind gene therapy that was tailor-made for his genetic mutation. (Cross, 8/18)

Raymond Damadian, who helped revolutionize medical diagnostics by developing the first magnetic resonance imaging machine and who later became so embittered after the Nobel Prize went to two other pioneers in MRI technology that he took out full-page newspaper ads to denounce the decision, died Aug. 3 at his home in Woodbury, N.Y. He was 86.The death was announced in a statement by Fonar Corp., which Dr. Damadian founded in 1978 after being awarded a patent for the MRI concept of using radio waves from atoms to construct images of soft tissue. No cause was given. (Murphy, 8/18)

Federal regulators on Thursday issued a first-of-a-kind warning to the maker of nicotine gummies, saying the illegal candies pose a growing risk to teenagers and younger children. The Food and Drug Administration said the fruit-flavored gummies from Florida manufacturer VPR Brands could cause nicotine poisoning or even death if eaten by small children. Regulators also cited recent research suggesting nicotine candies and similar products are becoming more popular among high school students. (Perrone, 8/18)

Flavored gummies are the new nicotine product in the crosshairs of the Food and Drug Administration, which is continuing its years-long crackdown on nicotine use by teens and young adults. The agency announced today that it issued a warning letter to Krave Nic, which sells gummies containing 1 milligram of nicotine each in three flavors — Blueraz, Cherry Bomb, and Pineapple. The company needs FDA authorization to manufacture or sell this type of product, the agency said in its statement. (Wetsman, 8/18)

Soon, residents may not see signs posted about underage smoking outside tobacco shops. And businesses that primarily sell tobacco will be allowed to stay open between 2 and 6 a.m. The city of Boise has gotten rid of ordinances restricting tobacco use following the passage of a bill by the Idaho Legislature this year that prohibits cities from having stricter rules than the state does. (Max Stevenson, 8/16)

KHN: More Communities Are Giving Flavored Tobacco The Boot. Will California Follow? 

California’s third-largest city banished flavored tobacco products from store shelves this summer, joining scores of other cities and counties in the state in a public health push to reduce nicotine addiction among youths and young adults. Like San Jose, Sacramento County also imposed a ban this summer. Los Angeles, California’s largest city, and San Diego will implement prohibitions in January. (Finn, 8/19)

Electronic cigarettes have attracted media and consumer attention for claims of their addictive nature, variety of flavors, and increased use among teens, sparking regulatory oversight and policies. A Penn State College of Medicine study suggests that these devices may help people decrease their dependence on combustible cigarettes -- which contain an array of harmful chemicals called toxicants -- without increasing their overall nicotine dependence. (8/16)

For some smokers, the first cigarette of the day is just not as satisfying without a cup of coffee. That could be more than just a morning habit: Chemical compounds in roasted coffee beans may help lighten the effects of morning nicotine cravings, University of Florida researchers have found. (8/17)

More than two out of every five smokers who redeemed a voucher for a free e-cigarette starter kit had stopped smoking within a month as part of a pilot scheme designed to help people quit. (Russell, 8/19)

Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable malignancies. The introduction of HPV tests and the HPV vaccine over the past 20 years, following decades of Pap testing, have contributed to a steady decline in the disease — with one notable exception. (Chen, 8/18)

Globally, nearly half of deaths due to cancer can be attributable to preventable risk factors, including the three leading risks of: smoking, drinking too much alcohol or having a high body mass index, a new paper suggests. (Howard, 8/19)

Health officials say Florida's meningococcal outbreak appears to be slowing, but they still urge caution against the deadly disease. (Colombini, 8/18)

In the early 1900s, up to 35,000 Americans a year were disabled by polio. The virus, which mainly spread during summer months, was finally tamed with a highly effective and widely embraced vaccine. For decades, transmission had disappeared in the United States. Until now. New York reported a confirmed case of paralytic polio in July, and wastewater surveillance showed the virus may have been circulating in neighboring counties since April. (Rodriguez, 8/19)

A “fast-moving” outbreak of E. coli illness has been reported in Michigan and Ohio. While the majority of E. coli strains are harmless and play a key role in maintaining a healthy intestinal tract in humans, other strains are classified as pathogenic — meaning they can cause sickness that may lead to urinary tract infections, pneumonia and respiratory infections, according to the CDC. (Hassan, 8/18)

So scientists have tried for years to find ways to break down PFAS, an acronym for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. On Thursday, researchers at Northwestern University published a study showing that PFAS can be destroyed using two relatively harmless chemicals: sodium hydroxide or lye, a chemical used to make soap, and dimethyl sulfoxide, a chemical approved as a medication for bladder pain syndrome. (Bendix, 8/18)

Hallucinogen use in the United States has increased among adults in the last two decades, a new study found. (Habeshian, 8/18)

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) extends protections to people with gender dysphoria, a federal appeals court found this week. (Rummler, 8/18)

For older adults at risk of dementia, regular exercise from light stretching to rigorous aerobics can help slow memory and thinking decline, a new study shows. Alzheimer’s researchers said the findings are from a late-stage trial measuring exercise as a potential remedy for people with mild cognitive decline. And they described it as a new avenue to attack a neurodegenerative disease that for decades has stymied researchers and pharmaceutical companies. (Alltucker, 8/19)

Latino, Black and Asian adults are more likely to have diabetes at lower body mass indexes than non-Hispanic white adults, suggesting doctors should lower the threshold for testing. (Franco, 8/18)

KHN: Readers And Tweeters Place Value On Community Services And Life-Sustaining Care 

KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories. (8/19)

Colorado has taken another step toward importing lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada, after signing contracts with companies on both sides of the border that will handle the transaction. (Ingold, 8/18)

The Biden administration may have signed a law designed to lower prescription drug prices, but Colorado state officials are pressing ahead with plans to win federal approval to import medicines from Canada — and have now signed contracts with two wholesalers as a key part of the effort. (Silverman, 8/18)

The Washington Supreme Court says that under state law, it’s OK for judges to award extraordinary damages in so-called “wrongful life” cases where a child has birth defects or disabilities that require extensive care. The unanimous decision Thursday came in the case of a woman who became pregnant in 2011 after a federally funded health clinic mistakenly gave her a shot of flu vaccine instead of the contraceptive Depo-Provera. Her child was born with a condition that causes cognitive delays, slowed speech and language skills, epilepsy and vision problems. (Johnson, 8/19)

A unique agreement Maryland made with federal regulators that affects how much everyone in the state pays for medical care, and how they get that care in the hospital or a doctor’s office, has been extended through 2026. (Cohn, 8/18)

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration has unveiled an initiative aimed at providing comprehensive, cost-effective care for people age 55 and older. People voluntarily enrolling will receive a variety of medical and social services. Beshear said it will expand services for people who otherwise qualify for placement in nursing homes. (8/18)

Over the last decade, more than half the country has moved to protect LGBTQ youth from “conversion therapy,” a widely discredited practice that aims to “cure” queer and transgender people. This week, Pennsylvania became the 27th state to restrict conversion efforts, in a move advocates and medical experts say could have a powerful impact on young LGBTQ people in the state and beyond. (Branigin, 8/18)

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar and state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, have added their support to a yearslong call by some state legislators and women’s health care advocates to remove taxes on menstrual products like tampons, sanitary pads and pantyliners. Hegar and Huffman said they’d support efforts in next year’s legislative session to make such products nontaxable. (Melhado, 8/18)

Those figures, contained in a report released Thursday, reflect the Sisyphean nature of battling one of the city’s worst crises in some of the starkest terms ever. As dire as those numbers are, though, the report also shows the most significant headway in 17 years in reducing overall homelessness in San Francisco. (Fagan and Moench, 8/18)

In response to a national opioid epidemic, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said it will allow its deputies to carry a drug used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. The previous policy to not carry the medicine was an outlier in the state, where nearly two-thirds of the sheriff's offices issue Narcan and train their deputies, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. (Brutus, 8/18)

Flesh is squishy. Bone is hard. Now with haptics, surgeons in training can feel the sensation of cutting into one and drilling into the other without having to be in operating rooms. With virtual reality as a backbone, companies are leveraging haptics to enable people to feel virtual objects, creating immersive experiences across a range of scenarios. Simulated surgery, for example, provides varying levels of feedback to surgeons working on virtual bone or flesh. (Bousquette, 8/12)

As Siddhartha Mukherjee, an oncologist and writer, noted about his experiences with patients: “People are having poisons dripped into their blood, some are dying, others are being saved, and every conversation you have carries a kind of potency that you just don’t encounter in the rest of the world. It is immensely challenging, both intellectually and emotionally.” All of this has been threatened by the highly transmissible coronavirus that has stretched our social bonds and thrust us into various degrees of isolation. (Baig, 8/14)

Although the United States and Britain have high immunization rates, they also have pockets of low immunity that allow the virus to flourish. In those communities, all unvaccinated people — not just children — are at risk. If polio continues to spread in the United States for a year, the country may lose its polio-free status under W.H.O. guidelines. (Mandavilli, 8/18)

After helping Occupy Wall Street activists buy debt for a few years, Antico and Ashton launched RIP Medical Debt in 2014. They started raising money from donors to buy up debt on secondary markets — where hospitals sell debt for pennies on the dollar to companies that profit when they collect on that debt. (Noguchi, 8/15)

Although we may never be able to fully replicate all of the physical and mental benefits of working in the office, there are small changes that can help improve remote work. One way to do that is by playing games, suggests Tanya Tarr, behavioral scientist and president of Cultivated Insights. Yes, you read that correctly. Creating conditions for low-stakes play simulates problem-solving, encourages collaboration, and mimics the mirror neurons (brain cells that are activated when we perform an action and observe others performing the same action) that are often created in an office setting. These neurons are also responsible for producing empathy, which translates into trust, safety, and belonging—feelings that may be missing from remote and hybrid office settings. (Payton, 8/13)

Having a negative body image has long been considered a female problem. Countless books, videos and after-school specials have been devoted to highlighting the concern and the damage it does to girls and women. But men are nearly as likely to suffer from negative body-image concerns—and studies suggest that the stress and anxiety of the pandemic only made things worse. (Mitchell, 8/14)

When Sarah Hoyt arrived at Fort Jackson, S.C., for basic training in 2002, the Army confiscated all of her personal belongings. That included sports bras she had packed for the 10 weeks of strenuous physical activity that stretched ahead of her, she said. If she wanted new ones, she had to visit a reception station, which sold just one brand and one style, said Hoyt, now 41 and an Army veteran living at Camp Humphreys, South Korea. “If racerbacks were uncomfortable for you, too bad. If you needed more support, too bad. If the store was out of your size, too bad,” she said. (Kingsberry, 8/11)

When most adults, even older children, see an infant, they shamelessly slip into baby talk: Whooose a prettee baabee? Such a cuutiee. Their speech gets smoother, slower, higher pitched and sing-songy. Researchers call this altered form of speech "parentese," but almost everybody does it — an uncle, a neighbor or the nice lady at the grocery store. (Brink, 8/14)

About five billion years ago, stars merged and exploded, creating uranium that eventually became embedded in the Earth. As uranium decays as part of a natural process, it emits radon, a radioactive gas. This gas can seep into homes and other buildings through pipes and cracks in foundations. If present in high enough concentrations, the gas and its byproducts can damage lung tissue and cause lung cancer. (Miller, 8/8)

Initial reaction to the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade has cast doctors as powerless — unable to protect their patients from an onslaught of state laws that compel people to bear children. But physicians do have power, and they can — and should — resist the threat that forced-birth laws pose to patients’ lives and well-being. (M. Gregg Bloche and Sarah K. Werner, 8/18)

This spring, I miscarried at 9½ weeks. My body didn’t recognize that the embryo no longer had a heartbeat, so my doctor prescribed a round of misoprostol, a drug also used in abortions; it expelled everything from me except the embryo. She prescribed a second round, which gave me a 24-hour fever, during which I moderated a panel at a literary festival, delirious and wearing a diaper. (Katy Simpson Smith, 8/18)

America has failed its first post-Covid test — and Covid isn’t even over. The country remains fully mired in the pandemic, with this summer’s caseloads among the worst since the novel coronavirus first surfaced. At the same time, we have been unable to apply the lessons painfully gleaned over the past two years to the next virus to come along, monkeypox. (Dr. Jalal Baig, 8/18)

Finally, we have a glimmer of good news about monkeypox: The outbreaks in some countries, including the U.K., Germany and parts of Canada, are starting to slow down. On top of that, the outbreak in New York City may also be peaking and on the decline, according to new data from the city's health department. (Michaleen Doucleff, 8/18)

As data come in from around the world, a clear picture is emerging of who is being affected by the recent outbreak of monkeypox (MPX): Outside Africa, 99 percent of the cases have been in men, and 92 to 98  percent have been in self-identified men who have sex with men. Also, many of the cases in the Europe Union, the U.S. and the U.K. have been in men who are living with HIV. (Steven W. Thrasher, 8/18)

Battered by criticism of its response to the covid-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday announced an overhaul. The director, Rochelle Walensky, correctly recognized that the agency must become more action-oriented, clear in messaging and better grounded in data and laboratory science. That is a start. (8/18)

The Secretary of Health and Human Services recently announced an important reorganization that can help the federal government prevent future pandemics and be better prepared for other health emergencies. HHS changed the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response from a “staff division” to an “operating division” and renamed it the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR). ... It is a good first step, but three additional elements are needed to ensure success: funding, staff and leadership. (W. Craig Vanderwagen and Jennifer B. Alton, 8/18)

It was an appropriately hazy afternoon on the day my son Dylan, age two years, seven months, and sixteen days, was diagnosed with autism. The doctor was empathetic but serious when she said that he showed “symptoms consistent with an autism spectrum diagnosis.” (Pamela Feliciano, 8/18)

This November, Boston will host the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, the largest public health conference in the world. Past meetings have drawn more than 12,000 attendees. The event will feature hundreds of sessions and thousands of presentations. Yet one scheduled talk, by Dr. Leana Wen, a CNN medical analyst and frequent pundit, professor of health policy at George Washington University, and former president of Planned Parenthood, has caused an uproar. (David Zweig, 8/18)

We know that the right healthcare data, used meaningfully, can ensure patients receive the right care at the right time, help avoid unnecessary duplication of services, and prevent medical errors. Data can also help lower readmission rates and, as a result, healthcare spending. Despite this evidence for powerful outcomes, communities are often stuck at the first step: a lack of data-sharing. (Dolores Green, 8/18)

I had a COVID patient who was dying, and his family had to say goodbye through a screen. The man had his eyes closed. He was breathing heavily and shallowly, seemingly unaware of what was happening around him. As his family spoke, I placed my hand on his. He seemed to smile. The he passed away. (Victor Ruiz, 8/18)

Two-and-a-half years into the Covid-19 pandemic, the Biden administration released its national action plan to address longer-term impacts of Covid-19, which include orphaned children, bereavement, and the disabling condition known as long Covid that is accompanying the disease. The plan offers a good start for addressing long Covid, but leaves much undone. (Ryan Prior and Kimberly Knackstedt, 8/19)

"It's is never too late to get caught up with a vaccine series." That message from Dr. Gigi Chawla, vice president and chief of general pediatrics at Children's Minnesota, is sound medical advice for parents and students as the new school year looms. But it's especially timely this year with new viral enemies such as COVID-19 still circulating and an older foe, polio, surfacing in New York. (8/18)

The sharp decline in routine childhood immunization rates the World Health Organization recently reported is a stark warning that today’s pandemic mistakes and rise of vaccine misinformation could harm generations to come. (Amanda McClelland, 8/19)