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The American Cancer Society said Thursday that changes in preventive measures and screening in the past decade drove important trends in U.S. cancer incidence and outcomes. Cervical cancer rates dropped 65% from 2012 to 2019 among women in their early 20s after a generation of young women were vaccinated against human papillomavirus, or HPV, for the first time. (Abbott, 1/12)

After peaking in 1991, the mortality rate from cancer has continued to fall over the last 30 years due to a decrease in smoking and improved cancer detection and treatment, according to the study. (Shapero, 1/12)

Gaps in survival are particularly notable for prostate cancer. The death rate for prostate cancer among Black men was two to three times higher than those in every other racial group, according to the new report. “Disparities are profound,” said Dr. Karen Knudsen, chief executive officer at the American Cancer Society, at a press briefing today. (Wetsman and Miao, 1/12)

More men are being diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer that is less likely to respond to treatments, a new study from the American Cancer Society suggests. (Carroll, 1/12)

As the United States enters its third full covid winter, a top administration official is warning that the permanence of the coronavirus in the disease landscape could mean brutal and long-lasting seasonal surges of cold-weather illnesses for years to come, resulting in hospitals struggling to care for non-covid emergencies and unable to give patients timely, lifesaving treatments. (Sun and Achenbach, 1/12)

You may remember the XBB variant that took Singapore by storm last fall—one of the most immune-evasive yet. Dubbed “Gryphon” by the Canadian biology professor Ryan Gregory—who has a lot more names like it for other variants—after the mythical amalgamation of eagle and lion, it’s less of a global player than it was then. Now its descendants are battling for dominance throughout the world. Experts are keeping a close eye in particular on (the also Gregory-monikered) “Kraken” XBB.1.5, due to its ability to grow at a breakneck pace. (Prater, 1/12)

As the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic nears an end, the coronavirus continues to evolve and prove that it has more tricks up its sleeve. The highly contagious XBB.1.5 strain, the latest in a succession of omicron subvariants that was first detected in the U.S. in October, is quickly spreading. (Hwang, 1/11)

The number of COVID-19 deaths reported weekly in Los Angeles County has hit the highest point of the season, underscoring the continued deadly risks of a disease that has ripped through the community for nearly three years. (Money and Lin II, 1/12)

This time last year, Maryland hospitals were in dire straits. The number of people infected with COVID-19 in state hospitals hit 3,462 on Jan. 11, 2022, a pandemic peak that has not been approached since. One-third of the state’s acute care hospitals were operating on “crisis standards of care,” a set of emergency protocols that allowed clinicians to prioritize the sickest of patients. (Roberts, 1/12)

An appeals court has affirmed a ban in three states on enforcing a federal vaccine mandate for workers who contract with the federal government. A panel of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Thursday affirmed a lower court’s ruling that said the mandate was unconstitutional. President Joe Biden’s administration is not enforcing the rule while legal battles play out around the country. (1/12)

Older adults, particularly those living in nursing homes, are bearing the brunt of the current winter COVID wave in the United States, but booster rates among nursing home residents and staff remain low, according to new data from AARP. (Luterman, 1/12)

The peak of China's COVID-19 wave is expected to last two to three months, and will soon swell over the vast countryside where medical resources are relatively scarce, a top Chinese epidemiologist has said. (Orr and Zhang, 1/13)

A number of abortion-rights groups have criticized the GOP after House Republicans pushed through a bill requiring an infant born during or after an attempted abortion to receive medical care. The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act passed in a House 220-210 vote on Wednesday, with Texas' Henry Cuellar the only Democrat to support the measure. (Palmer, 1/12)

KHN: Ask Voters Directly, And Abortion Rights Wins Most Ballot Fights

This is shaping up as a critical year in the country’s battle over abortion rights, as both sides struggle to define a new status quo after the Supreme Court struck down the nearly half-century-old constitutional right last year. (Rovner, 1/13)

Officials in Republican-controlled Montana on Thursday heard comments against a health department proposal to require prior authorization to pay for abortions for Medicaid patients. Critics say the proposal would unnecessarily reduce access and delay or even prevent abortion care for low-income women. (Beth Hanson, 1/13)

In a stern statement released Tuesday, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said he would prosecute people who seek out and take abortion pills, despite a green light from the federal government for retail pharmacies to distribute them to the public. The declaration shocked reproductive justice advocates. Then just a day later, Marshall walked back his remarks, saying he only intended to target providers, not patients. (Dzhanova, 1/12)

Wisconsin Republicans voted Thursday to again allow therapists, social workers and counselors to try to change LGBTQ clients’ gender identities and sexual orientations — a discredited practice known as conversion therapy. (Venhuizen, 1/12)

Lawmakers in at least three states this year have filed legislation meant to restrict access to gender-affirming health care for individuals as old as 26, an escalation of a battle waged nationwide last year over whether children should be able to access certain prescription medications and procedures. (Migdon, 1/13)

Shah joined Maine CDC in June 2019 and led its efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. He will replace Debra Houry, who joined in 2021, and will report to U.S. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. His appointment, which comes a day after the United States extended COVID-19's status as a public health emergency, is part of a broader ongoing revamp of the agency's structure. (1/12)

Dr. Nirav Shah, the director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention who became the face of the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, is leaving for a high-ranking post in federal disease control, officials said Thursday. Shah, who has been with the state since 2019, has been appointed principal deputy director at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and will take over that role in March, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said. Shah will be second in the CDC’s hierarchy under Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. (Whittle, 1/12)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), along with Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Katherine Clark and Lori Trahan, issued their letter to Joaquin Duato, CEO and chairman of the board for Johnson & Johnson. “Our constituents across Massachusetts are experiencing a shortage of infant and children’s Tylenol and Motrin products as this challenging cold and flu season rages on, compounded by a surge of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and COVID-19,” they wrote. (Choi, 1/12)

Florida will seek to provide consumers more flexibility in buying prescription drugs and more information about their costs under a legislative proposal that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday he will ask lawmakers to approve. (1/12)

As part of the $1.7 trillion government spending bill that President Biden signed late last year, Congress authorized a pilot loan repayment program for people who work in infectious diseases and health emergency response — an incentive that advocates say could attract more people to the lagging fields. (Joseph, 1/13)

In a federal lawsuit filed Thursday, the two groups said that the agency has yet to act on a California cleanup plan for the Los Angeles area some six years after it was submitted; they allege that a decision is also unlawfully past due on whether Allegheny County, Pa., now meets the annual standard of 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air. In the suit, they ask a federal judge to set deadlines for final action on both. (Reilly, 1/12)

The proposal is in response to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, which has repeatedly pushed EPA to crack down on PVC, which has been linked to a range of health risks. But in its response, the agency said the group's petition "does not provide sufficient evidence" that regulating PVC as hazardous waste would have a meaningful impact on reducing exposure to phthalates. (Crunden, 1/12)

The percentage of U.S. kindergartners who’ve received standard childhood vaccines took a small but notable dip into the 2021-2022 school year, health officials said Thursday, amid disruptions related to Covid-19 and fears that anti-vaccine sentiment stirred up by the pandemic could be spreading to other shots. (Joseph, 1/12)

Nearly a quarter of a million kindergartners are vulnerable to measles due to a dip in vaccination coverage during the pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC, in a report published Thursday, found that 93% of kindergartners were up to date with state-required vaccines during the 2021-22 school year, a decline of 2% from 2019-20. (Kimball, 1/12)

"We're still trying to understand the extent to which misinformation around COVID vaccine has spread to misinformation about other childhood vaccines," Sean O’Leary, American Academy of Pediatrics chair of Committee on Infectious Diseases said on a call with reporters. Overall, those receiving state-required vaccinations declined to about 93% last year, down from 94% in the previous school year and 95% in the 2019-2020 school year, according to the CDC report. (1/12)

American women are having fewer babies, and they're having them later in life, government figures released Tuesday show. Data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's statistic arm — showed a sharp decline in fertility rates in recent years, with most women having an average of 1.3 babies and an increasing percentage giving birth at age 35 or older. (Tabachnick, 1/12)

Tammie Rachell Largent-Phillips, 52, has Type 2 diabetes. For the past two years, she's managed the condition using a drug called Ozempic, which helps people with diabetes keep blood sugar levels in check. (Lovelace Jr., Dunn and Dahlgren, 1/12)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday said screening of travelers from Uganda to the United States has ceased after Ugandan officials declared the Ebola outbreak in their country over yesterday. Two 21-day incubation periods had passed since the last case was reported in November. (Wappes, 1/12)

KHN: Why People Who Experience Severe Nausea During Pregnancy Often Go Untreated

Mineka Furtch wasn’t bothered by the idea of morning sickness after going through a miscarriage and the roller coaster of fertility medication before she finally became pregnant with her son. (Houghton, 1/13)

KHN: Ending Involuntary Commitments Would Shift Burden Of Dementia Care To Strapped Communities

State lawmakers from both parties have shown support for a plan to stop the practice of committing people with Alzheimer’s disease, other types of dementia, or traumatic brain injuries without their consent to the troubled Montana State Hospital and instead direct them to treatment in their communities. (Larson, 1/13)

Scientists may be edging closer to unearthing a fountain of youth, announcing Thursday that they have developed a new model to explain how aging works — and how it might be reversed. (Weisman, 1/12)

In Boston labs, old, blind mice have regained their eyesight, developed smarter, younger brains and built healthier muscle and kidney tissue. On the flip side, young mice have prematurely aged, with devastating results to nearly every tissue in their bodies. The experiments show aging is a reversible process, capable of being driven “forwards and backwards at will,” said anti-aging expert David Sinclair, a professor of genetics in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School and codirector of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research. (LaMotte, 1/12)

Legalization of recreational cannabis may contribute to increased rates of teen and childhood asthma, new research suggests. Investigators compared asthma rates in states with recreational programs with rates in states where the substance was illegal from 2011 through 2019. Although the overall incidence of childhood asthma decreased within this time frame, the prevalence of asthma increased slightly among teens aged 12 to 17, and among children in some minority racial and ethnic groups in states with recreational use laws, relative to states where cannabis is fully illegal.  (Melillo, 1/12)

Children seen at one of the St. Louis region’s busiest pediatric hospitals suffered a significant increase in firearm injuries and deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent study by the University of Missouri School of Medicine in Columbia. (Munz, 1/12)

A small new study—this one analyzing antibodies in infants' stool samples—provides further evidence that the breast milk of women vaccinated against COVID-19 may help protect babies who are too young to receive the vaccine, according to findings published today in the Journal of Perinatology. (Wappes, 1/12)

A study finds that paying people to take a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine didn't lower the likelihood of seeking the second or third dose or of other positive health behaviors and didn't erode morals, sense of civic duty, or feelings of self-determination. (Van Beusekom, 1/12)

A large study published yesterday in BMJ concludes that long-COVID symptoms in patients who had mild infections resolved within a year, but some physicians say the research design was flawed, and the findings don't match their clinical experiences, could provide false assurance, and may have unintended consequences for those with persistent symptoms. (Van Beusekom, 1/12)

HCA is a health care juggernaut, employing 284,000 people in 182 hospitals and 125 surgery centers across the country and in the U.K. Operating in 20 U.S. states, HCA generated almost $7 billion in earnings in 2021, double that of the prior year, securities filings show. In the first nine months of last year, it earned $4.2 billion. (Morgenson, Peel and McFadden, 1/12)

A very soggy edition of the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, better known as JPM, wrapped up Thursday in San Francisco after filling downtown eateries and crowding hotel lobbies all week. The annual health care takeover of San Francisco is arguably still the most influential gathering in the business, offering a chance for investors to get a pulse on the upcoming year and for health execs to humblebrag about how many meetings they squeezed in. (Dreher, 1/13)

When it was clear in recent years that Summa Health’s expanding behavioral health unit had outgrown its home inside the 1920s-era Summa St. Thomas Hospital, the health system faced a choice. It could downsize the unit, or spread its programs across multiple buildings. Summa chose instead to support and acknowledge the importance of mental health. (Washington, 1/12)

Jacksonville University is expanding its accelerated bachelor’s degree program in nursing with the addition of a new clinical partner: Mayo Clinic. The accelerated program offers a path to a bachelor's degree in nursing in one year. JU said the program strives to meet the growing need for nurses in Florida and across the U.S. The expansion will double the number of students in the program at JU's Arlington campus. (Scanlan, 1/12)

The pandemic-fueled boom in home care could be replicating one of the most worrisome hazards in institutional settings: bloodstream infections from central lines. Home infusion therapy — whether for cancer drugs, antibiotics or other treatments — is becoming a preferred option for more patients. (Reed, 1/12)

George Yancopoulos isn’t apologizing. The president and chief scientist of Regeneron was booed on stage and received a round of bad headlines last month, after he erupted at CNBC reporter Bertha Coombs for trying to ask him and other panelists at a Milken Institute summit how the health care system would ensure access “when” there was a cure for Alzheimer’s. (Mast, 1/12)

New MetroHealth CEO Airica Steed looks to narrow healthcare disparities as the Cleveland-based nonprofit health system restructures after firing its former chief executive. (Kacik, 1/12)

Thousands of nurses at two New York City hospitals ended a three-day strike Thursday after reaching a tentative contract agreement that union officials said offers better working conditions, in addition to pay raises. (Peltz, 1/12)

Even as 7,000 nurses return to work at two of New York’s busiest hospitals after a three-day strike, colleagues around the country say it’s just a matter of time before frontline workers at other hospitals begin walking the picket line. (Seitz, 1/13)

A former CVS employee filed a lawsuit against the company Wednesday for allegedly violating her religious beliefs after she was fired for refusing to prescribe birth control. (Sforza, 1/12)

A high-ranking former technology employee at Takeda Pharmaceutical’s US headquarters in Massachusetts and her boyfriend were arrested Wednesday on federal charges for allegedly setting up a fake consulting firm that defrauded the Japanese drug giant of about $2.3 million. (Saltzman, 1/12)

North Carolina’s state auditor and the panel that disciplines physicians clashed over a performance review released Thursday in which auditors said they were hamstrung scrutinizing how the state Medical Board handled provider complaints because the panel denied them information. (Robertson, 1/12)

A Bay Area judge has ordered a major nursing home chain, Mariner Health Care, to comply with California laws on staffing and patient release, with oversight by a court-appointed monitor. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman issued the preliminary injunction Friday in a lawsuit filed in 2021 by the state and the district attorneys of Alameda, Los Angeles, Marin and Santa Cruz counties. (Egelko, 1/10)

Attorney General Rob Bonta accused the companies of deceptive business practices to artificially inflate the price of a critical treatment for diabetes. “No one should be forced to ration or go without basic medication that could mean the difference between life or death,” Bonta said at a news conference to announce the filing of the suit in state court. (Castanos, 1/12)

"Allegations that we play any role in determining the prices charged by manufacturers are false," a CVS Caremark spokesperson said in an email. An Optum spokesperson said the company "work(s) every day to provide people with access to affordable drugs, including insulin." (Pierson, 1/12)

KHN: California Attorney General Sues Drugmakers Over Inflated Insulin Prices

California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Thursday sued the six major companies that dominate the U.S. insulin market, ratcheting up the state’s assault on a profitable industry for artificially jacking up prices and making the indispensable drug less accessible for diabetes patients. (Hart and Young, 1/12)

The former Trump White House press secretary signed seven orders on her first day as governor on Tuesday, generally focused on red-meat issues like “Latinx,” the use of TikTok on government devices and a review on the teaching of critical race theory in schools. (Bernal, 1/12)

A group of New Hampshire hospitals is suing the state over its practice of boarding people who are held involuntarily due to a mental health crisis in emergency rooms for days or weeks until psychiatric beds are available. (Cuno-Booth, 1/12)

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly plans to return Friday to the Statehouse after learning that a COVID-19 test earlier in the week gave her a false positive result, her office said. (1/12)

As of this month, Maine has banned the sale of residential carpets with long-lasting chemicals known as PFAS and became the first state to require companies to report products that contain the chemicals. In Washington and Vermont, companies can no longer sell or use food packaging, such as wrappers and pizza boxes, that contain them. Vermont’s ban on ski waxes with the chemicals begins in July. (Maher and Tita, 1/12)

A federal agency will provide more than $2.3 million to two Kentucky organizations to support school safety and mental health, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell said. The Department of Health and Human Services is awarding more than $2 million to the Kentucky Educational Development Finance Corporation in Ashland and $250,000 to Seven Counties Services Inc., based in Louisville, the senator announced Thursday. (1/13)

Public health policy is complicated because it requires balancing the needs of various groups. Nearly every policy will be perceived as too restrictive to some and too permissive to others. Asking everyone to forgo all indoor socialization is not reasonable, nor are perpetual mask requirements in all settings. (Leana S. Wen, 1/12)

Emergency departments are not equipped to care for patients for an extended period, even as they are increasingly called to do so. Throughout my son’s two-day stay, there was only a commode available for the severe gastrointestinal problem that plagued him and exacerbated the symptoms of his rare genetic disorder. (Rikleen, 1/13)

Corporate medicine has not only taken over the physician-patient relationship, but it has impacted patient safety so negatively that potentially deadly outcomes are more common. (Deborah Herchelroath, 1/11)

Although the 7,000 New York City nurses who went on strike this week reached a deal with their health systems on Jan. 12, nurse staffing levels will continue to be a problem in New York City and in hospitals across the country. The New York nurses are just the latest group to speak out about hospitals that have long minimized nursing staff, prioritizing profits over safety. It’s a strategy that many nurses like me find all too familiar. (Brigid Tonry, 1/12)

Getting COVID in 2023 is so retro. It’s wrong to say COVID’s back, because it never went away. But, psychologically, in our house, we thought we had escaped the pandemic unscathed. Even though our house has resembled a hospital ward since 2020. (Kevin Cullen, 1/12)

A leading organization of pediatricians is recommending that teens with obesity be offered weight-loss medication as part of a comprehensive treatment plan. (Lisa Jarvis, 1/12)

The Food and Drug Administration’s process for scrutinizing new drugs is unrivaled in the world, and the American people expect it to demand a high standard for safety and efficacy. But a congressional oversight staff report released Dec. 29 on the application of Biogen for its Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm, highlights serious lapses by the company and agency. Their cozy dealing undermines public trust. (1/11)

Access to treatment for addiction has long plagued U.S. health systems. Why? Two reasons: It is expensive, and the long-term value of addiction treatment is often disregarded by insurance companies and other payers. (Nick Hayes, 1/13)