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A biologic therapy that delays the onset of type 1 diabetes received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration on Thursday. It is the first therapy approved for prevention of type 1 diabetes. The monoclonal antibody teplizumab, which will be marketed under the brand name Tzield, from ProventionBio and Sanofi is given through intravenous infusion. (Christensen and Goodman, 11/17)

Tzield was approved to delay the onset of stage 3 type 1 diabetes in adults and children ages 8 and up who currently have stage 2 type 1 diabetes. The medication is thought to slow down the body's attack on its own insulin-producing cells and thus give people more time before they become dependent on pharmaceutical insulin. Tzield is not suitable for people with insulin-dependent type 1 diabetes, people who are pre-type 2 diabetics or those with type 2 diabetes. (Strauss and Winsor, 11/18)

"We expect to have drug in the channel by the end of the year," said Jason Hoitt, Provention's chief commercial officer, adding that preparations were underway with its partner Sanofi for a full launch in January 2023. (Satija, 11/17)

Experts say teplizumab marks a "new era" in treatment, tackling the root cause of the condition for the first time, rather than just the symptoms. ... It is likely to pave the way for approval decisions in other countries. (Mundasad, 11/17)

People recovering from COVID-19 are at higher risk of a new diabetes diagnosis, a research team from Beijing reported this week in BMC Medicine. ... They note that an increased risk of diabetes has also been found for other viruses, but their analysis shows a 20% higher risk of developing diabetes following COVID compared to patients with other upper respiratory viruses and an 82% increased risk compared to the general population. (11/17)

Nine out of 10 people with diabetes in Japan feel troubled by the disease’s Japanese name, saying it creates a stigma that the condition is filthy or caused only by bad habits, according to a recent survey of over 1,000 people who have the disease. Diabetes, called tōnyōbyō in Japanese, is written using the kanji characters for sugar (tō), urine (nyō) and disease (byō). But the image that conjures up doesn’t reflect the actual condition of the disease — which is characterized by high levels of glucose, a type of sugar, in the blood, not in the urine — according to the Japan Association for Diabetes Education and Care, the group of diabetes patients and medical professionals that conducted the survey. (Otake, 11/17)

Government policies aimed at curbing excessive use of powerful psychiatric drugs for dementia patients in nursing homes are probably having an unintended side effect: greater use of anti-seizure medications, a government report said Thursday. The evidence released by the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services indicates physicians specializing in nursing home care may have traded one controversial practice for another in response to regulatory scrutiny, seeking to sedate dementia patients with anticonvulsant medications rather than antipsychotics. (Rowland, 11/17)

Eight out of 10 Medicare long-stay nursing home residents received psychotropic drugs from 2011-2019, the HHS OIG found in a review of Medicare data. Residents of facilities with low staff ratios and with high shares of low-income people are more likely to receive psychotropic medicines. (Berryman, 11/17)

The number of flu cases in Arizona is nearly 16 times higher than it was at this time last year, and some hospitals are taking action with earlier-than-usual visitor restrictions. Phoenix-based Banner Health, which is Arizona's largest health care system, announced this week that because of increased flu and other respiratory viruses in circulation, it would be implementing visitor restrictions at all its hospitals effective Monday. Scottsdale-based HonorHealth implemented visitor restrictions on Monday, and officials with Phoenix-based Valleywise Health are weighing taking similar action. (Innes, 11/17)

As a result of a rapid increase in flu cases and other respiratory viruses throughout the state, several North Carolina healthcare systems have enforced strict visitation restrictions at hospitals. “Out of concern for the health and well-being of the community, and due to the widespread prevalence of respiratory viruses such as RSV and flu among young children, several North Carolina health systems ask that children 12 and under not visit patients who are hospitalized,” Atrium Health said Tuesday in a joint statement along with neighboring regional health care systems. (Santiago, 11/18)

Cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, are continuing to strain hospitals across the county. Texas hospitals are also seeing an earlier-than-normal surge in cases. On Wednesday, Texas had just 67 open pediatric ICU beds across the entire state. (Talarico, 11/16)

Health officials with Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital said that patients are still waiting hours to get seen with one of the longest wait times earlier this week hitting 12 hours and on Wednesday they said they saw over 220 patients. “We’re making sure that we have capacity to treat those that come see us and make sure that we prioritize the sickest and the youngest," said Ben Whitworth, Chief Operating Officer with Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital. (Vargas, 11/17)

As Americans gather for the holidays, Harvard doctors are warning that three dangerous respiratory viruses are circulating — and threaten to become unwelcome guests at the festivities. “We are in the midst of a true triple-demic,” said Dr. Jacob Lemieux, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital. (Freyer, 11/17)

The Biden administration on Thursday sidestepped calls from pediatric groups that have been urging the government to declare a public health emergency in response to the surge in respiratory illnesses in children. (Alba, Egan and Bendix, 11/17)

Pfizer has an RSV vaccine candidate called RSVpreF. It is going through clinical trials in pregnant patients and in older adults. Maternal immunization, or the administration of a vaccine during pregnancy, is one way to get antibodies to newborns. The parent’s body produces antibodies as an immune reaction to the vaccine and can pass those antibodies to the baby through the placenta. Most adults have been exposed to RSV and have antibodies present. The vaccine boosts antibody response, and doctors can time when it is given to pregnant people so their babies have the highest chance of getting the benefits passively before they are born. (Hou, 11/18)

“Typically, the population-level immunity is what counts in terms of how many infections we are going to see” in a given season, says Arnold S. Monto, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. “Now almost everybody is going around unmasked, so we have the situation where [flu] transmission can go back to what we have normally seen,” he says. The fact that fewer people currently have antibodies against the flu because they weren’t exposed to it during the pandemic may be facilitating the spread of the virus, he adds. That doesn’t mean that lack of exposure to a virus impairs an individual’s immune system, a misconception that is sometimes referred to as “immunity debt.” (Lenharo, 11/17)

Nancy Pelosi made history in 2007 for getting the job, for becoming the first female speaker of the House and the highest-ranking woman in American history. As the California congresswoman steps back from her role as the leader of House Democrats through tumultuous times, she has also made history for what she has done in the job. (Page, 11/17)

Dealing with trauma she likened to “survivor’s guilt,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the aftermath of the October attack on her husband, Paul, by an assailant looking for her has left the California Democrat’s family shaken. “If he had fallen, slipped on the ice or was in an accident and hurt his head, it would be horrible, but to have it be an assault on him because they were looking for me is really — they call it ‘survivor’s guilt’ or something,” Pelosi said Thursday in her most detailed comments to date on the attack’s aftermath. “But the traumatic effect on him, this happened in our house.” (Alfaro and Kane, 11/17)

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on Thursday introduced new legislation that aims to improve access to communications technology for Americans with disabilities to ensure they have equal opportunities in an increasingly online world. The Communications, Video, and Technology Accessibility Act (CVTA) will update policies for television programming and online video streaming platforms. (Dress, 11/7)

An effort to lower the cost of insulin for privately insured patients faces long odds in the lame duck session, Axios' Peter Sullivan reports. (Sullivan, 11/18)

Millions of Medicaid recipients are unaware that states will redetermine their eligibility for the program when the COVID-19 public health emergency ends — and fewer than one third know what other coverage options exist, according to an Urban Institute policy brief. (Moreno, 11/17)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: The Changing Of The Guard

The coming Congress will look different from the current one: While Democrats narrowly kept control of the U.S. Senate, Republicans gained a majority in the House. While their majority is small, it will likely be enough to block any further items on President Joe Biden’s agenda. Meanwhile, the current, lame-duck Congress still has a lot of items on its to-do list, including keeping the government open and averting a scheduled 4% cut in payments to health providers. (11/17)

U.S. agriculture officials proposed changes Thursday to the federal program that helps pay the grocery bills for low-income pregnant women, babies and young children, including extending a bump in payments for fresh fruits and vegetables allowed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The update also adds more whole grains, canned fish and non-dairy options to their shopping carts. The effort is aimed at expanding the number and type of healthy foods available to families who get assistance from the Agriculture Department’s program known as WIC, officials said. (Aleccia, 11/18)

Mental health advocates say there’s a cruel quirk in abortion bans in several states: There are exemptions for life-threatening emergencies, but psychiatric crises don’t count. It makes no sense to an Arizona mother of three who became suicidal during her fourth pregnancy and says an abortion saved her life. Or to researcher Kara Zivin, who nearly died from a suicide attempt in pregnancy and whose work suggests these crises are not uncommon. (Tanner, 11/17)

When he was campaigning for governor of Minnesota, Scott Jensen first said he’d ban abortions with no exceptions for rape and incest. Later, he said the governor couldn’t do anything about abortion anyway, given Minnesota’s constitutional protections. Last weekend, in a 22-minute Facebook Live video reflecting on his bruising loss, he made a new argument. “This election was not about inflation, and crime and education...for so many Americans across the country this election was about an intrusion into a person’s autonomy,” he said, referring to abortion. “In the future I think the lesson is clear — at least it should be to Republicans. If you infringe on someone’s freedom, you may well lose. You’ll probably lose.” (Cohen, 11/17)

State Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, is one of the Texas Legislature’s leading anti-abortionists. This week, he introduced House Bill 521 for the 2023 legislative session. The short bill states that a pregnant driver “is entitled to use any HOV lane in the state.” Although the language is unclear, I assume that means they won’t get a ticket. I tried to reach Cain but was unsuccessful. (Lieber, 11/17)

Another woman has come forward with the harrowing details of how the Supreme Court’s decision four months ago to overturn Roe v. Wade put her life in danger. CNN has told the stories of several women – including one from Houston, one from central Texas and one from Cleveland – and what they had to do to obtain medically necessary abortions. Now, a woman from Austin, Texas, has come forward because she nearly died when she couldn’t get a timely abortion. (Cohen and Bonifield, 11/16)

When state Sen. Richard Briggs voted “yes” on Tennessee’s total abortion ban, he never thought it would actually go into effect. It was 2019, and Roe v. Wade was the law of the land. His vote seemed like a political statement, not a decision that would soon impact people’s lives. But on Aug. 25, the ban, one of the strictest in the country, kicked in. It contains no explicit exceptions for circumstances under which the procedure would be allowed. Any doctor who performs an abortion in Tennessee faces a felony that carries penalties of up to 15 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000. (Surana, 11/15)

Malta announced Wednesday it is easing its abortion laws, becoming the last country in the European Union to end a total ban on the procedure. The Mediterranean nation, located off the coast of Sicily, does not allow women to receive an abortion, including in cases of rape or incest. ... The change was spurred after an American pregnant woman nearly died in the country because doctors refused to perform an abortion. (Kekatos, 11/17)

No association was detected between COVID-19 vaccination and herpes zoster infection in a database study involving more than 2 million individuals in the U.S. ... Shingles following COVID-19 vaccination became a worry after some previous studies reported an elevated risk. (Hein, 11/16)

Although they made up around half the participants in Covid vaccine trials, women were not asked about any menstrual changes as part of that process. Since then, several studies have revealed that Covid vaccines can indeed induce short-term changes in menstrual cycles. (Bendix, 11/17)

"The association between parent vaccination and reduced risk of admission for SARS-CoV-2 in children younger than 5 years suggests that parents played a major role in transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to their young children during both waves, but the association between protection and vaccination seemed lower in the Omicron vs Delta period," the study authors wrote. "The Omicron variant has been shown to be more transmissible, and the vaccine effectiveness against infection seems lower." (11/17)

The Indian Health Service announced Thursday that all tribal members covered by the federal agency will be offered a vaccine at every appointment when appropriate, under a new vaccine strategy. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, American Indians and Alaska Natives have had some of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates across the country. (11/17)

Remember that messenger-RNA-based Covid-19 vaccine you got? Just a few days later, the teeny molecular messengers contained in the shot were already gone. Despite scientists’ best attempts to bolster mRNA and improve its stability, these molecules are ephemeral. (Wosen, 11/18)

Amid a sustained rise in coronavirus transmission, Los Angeles County is once again strongly recommending wearing a mask in indoor public spaces. The daily number of newly reported cases has jumped almost 70% from a month ago, though case rates are still well shy of previous waves and officials continue to tout the benefits of available vaccines and therapeutics in warding off the worst COVID-19 has to offer. (Money and Lin II, 11/17)

California’s COVID-19 trends have officially reversed ahead of an anticipated winter surge. The state is averaging about 9 new daily cases per 100,000 residents as of Thursday, marking a 36% increase compared to the 6.5 per 100,000 reported two weeks earlier, according to health department data. (Vaziri, 11/17)

What are steps people can take to protect themselves and their loved ones against Covid-19 during Thanksgiving dinners and other gatherings over the coming holidays? Is it still important to require vaccines for attendees at such events? Does a mini-quarantine period help to reduce risk? If people are testing before gathering together, when should they test, and with what tests? And what’s the best way to protect against other circulating viruses? (Hetter, 11/16)

Maintaining an indoor relative humidity between 40-60% is associated with relatively lower rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths, according to a study by MIT researchers who found that indoor relative humidity may also influence the transmission of the coronavirus. (Vaziri, 11/17)

COVID-19 patients—especially children and those with nonsevere infections—are 55% more likely to develop epilepsy or seizures in the next 6 months than those who have influenza, but the overall risk remains very low, concludes a study published yesterday in Neurology. (Van Beusekom, 11/7)

Medical equipment is still strewn around the house of Rick Lucas, 62, who came home from the hospital nearly two years ago. He picks up a spirometer, a device that measures lung capacity, and takes a deep breath, though not as deep as he'd like. Still, he has come a long way for someone who spent more than three months on a ventilator because of COVID-19. (Farmer, 11/18)

Little was known about COVID-19 when the virus started infecting millions of people. Misinformation and false correlations in the early days of the pandemic created further confusion. Researchers are still learning and discovering what happens after a COVID-19 infection and what recovery may look like. (Norfleet, 11/16)

Screenings for a variety of common cancers have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, potentially leading to diagnoses later in the course of the disease when it may be more difficult to treat successfully, U.S. data published on Thursday suggest. In 2020 - the first year of the pandemic - average rates of screening for breast cancer fell by 40%, for cervical cancer by 36%, and for colorectal cancer by 45%, compared to the three previous years, according to an analysis of medical claims data from 306 million adults. (Alleyne-Morris, 11/17)

Although the prevalence of e-cigarette use among teens has declined in recent years, those who do vape are starting younger and they’re using e-cigarettes more intensely, a new study suggests. Among adolescents who only use e-cigarettes, the percentage who used the products within the first five minutes of waking up in a day was less than 1% between the years 2014 and 2017, but that shifted to 10.3% from 2017 through 2021, according to the study published Monday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open. (Howard, 11/17)

Nearly half of the world's population, or 3.5 billion people, suffer from oral diseases, the majority of them in low- and middle-income countries, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. The most common oral illnesses are tooth decay, severe gum disease, tooth loss and oral cancers, with untreated tooth decay affecting nearly 2.5 billion people, the United Nations agency said. (11/17)

Thousands of pounds of ground beef sold at H-E-B and Central Market were recalled because the meat may be contaminated with a hard, mirror-like material. Tyson Foods, an H-E-B supplier, recalled nearly 94,000 pounds of ground beef after receiving complaints from consumers who found reflective material in the meat, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Wednesday. (Bahari, 11/17)

“This is not a drug to experiment with,” said Eduardo Chávez, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement and Administration (DEA) in Dallas. “Just two milligrams of fentanyl… can cause fatal poisoning.” (Garcia, 11/17)

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday launched a probe into whether Oklahoma, Oklahoma City and the city's police department discriminate against people who have mental health disabilities in the provision of behavioral care services. The investigation will examine if Oklahoma violates federal law, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), by relying on psychiatric institutions to serve adults with behavioral health issues rather than relying on community-based services offered to others, Assistant Attorney General Clarke said at a news conference. (11/17)

Florida had 5,077 incidents of students being involuntarily committed under a mental health law known as the Baker Act during the past school year, data presented Wednesday to a school safety commission showed. (Dailey, 11/17)

Colorado’s child welfare system has stepped up efforts in recent years to either keep kids with their relatives or more quickly get them adopted, policies motivated by research that children are better off in permanent homes. But where the system is failing, parents and child advocates say, is in getting kids the mental health help they need to heal — not just from the original abuse and trauma, but from the grief that comes with losing their biological parents. (Brown, Prentzel and Najmabadi, 11/17)

Yale University President Peter Salovey wrote a letter to school alumni Wednesday defending the university’s mental health services and the way it treats suicidal students, while also detailing plans for more resources and possible changes to policy. His letter followed a Washington Post story in which current and former students described being pressured by university administrators to withdraw once the university learned about their mental health problems and being forced to reapply to get back into the university. (Wan, 11/17)

KHN: Mistrust And Polarization Steer Rural Governments To Reject Federal Public Health Funding

When Elko County commissioners rejected a $500,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that could have helped the county create a health department or health district, Kayla Hopkins pleaded with them to reconsider. Hopkins, who has lived for nearly nine years in the sprawling rural county that forms the northeastern corner of Nevada, told the board how she struggled through postpartum depression and needed mental health resources. (Rodriguez, 11/18)

Nearly three years into the pandemic, demand for mental health services is swamping the psychology profession, according to a new report from the American Psychological Association. Nearly half of 2,300 psychologists surveyed said they were unable to meet demand for treatment, while 60% said they have no more openings for new patients. (Moreno, 11/17)

Hundreds of millions of people around the world lack reliable access to safe water — an escalating crisis with a potentially profound impact on their mental health. (O'Reilly and Snyder, 11/17)

As more Americans struggle with depression and anxiety, the cast of “The West Wing” teamed up with the Biden administration on Thursday to share a simple message: you are not alone. The star-studded cast of the drama series that, even years after being off air maintains a strong fan base, participated in a roundtable discussion with the White House to share their own stories of childhood abuse, isolation during the COVID-19 and struggles to help their children navigate the anxiety-inducing world of social media. (Seitz, 11/17)

Negotiations on new rules for dealing with pandemics are underway at the World Health Organization (WHO), with a target date of May 2024 for a legally binding agreement to be adopted by the U.N. health agency's 194 member countries. (Farge, 11/18)

Virtual reality is becoming a real-world health tool for everything from chronic pain and behavioral health problems on Earth to medical training for astronauts in space. (Reed, 11/17)

Sanford Health and Fairview Health Services are trying to merge nearly a decade after a failed first attempt. But it's uncertain whether the nonprofit Midwestern health systems will be able sway Minnesota state agencies that derailed the earlier proposal. (Kacik and Hudson, 11/17)

Bill Gates’ philanthropic foundation is pledging more than $7 billion to improve health, gender equality and boost farming productivity in Africa. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will spend the funds over the next four years, according to a statement from the organization. The grants are in addition to the financing the foundation has made to organizations fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, it said. (Ombok, 11/17)

An emergency medical technician responding to a call died after being struck head-on by a car Thursday morning in Forsyth County, according to the Georgia State Patrol. Shortly before 7 a.m., the Central EMS ambulance was traveling east on Ga. 20 in the center lane, according to investigators. The ambulance, which had its emergency equipment including lights and siren activated, was in the turn lane to avoid other vehicles, the GSP said. (Stevens, 11/17)

Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos Inc. convicted of fraud, was sentenced to 135 months, or 11.25 years, in prison, capping the extraordinary downfall of a one-time Silicon Valley wunderkind. U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, who oversaw the monthslong trial in which Ms. Holmes was convicted of running a yearslong fraud scheme at her blood-testing company, delivered the sentence Friday in federal court. (Somerville, 11/18)

Pharmaceutical companies could be made to disclose prices and deals agreed for any products they make to fight future global health emergencies, under new rules that would govern a World Health Organization-backed pandemic accord reviewed by Reuters. (Rigby and Farge, 11/18)

Some experts say much more research is needed before the new tests can be widely deployed, especially in primary-care settings. Others say there already is sufficient information on the accuracy of some tests. All agree that no single test is perfect and physicians still should perform a complete clinical assessment. Widespread use of the tests may be some time off in the future — after insurance coverage improves and even more accurate next-generation tests become available. For now, none is covered by Medicare, and private insurance coverage is patchy. (McGinley, 11/17)

KHN: As STDs Proliferate, Companies Rush To Market At-Home Test Kits. But Are They Reliable? 

Among the more remarkable legacies of the covid-19 pandemic is how quickly federal regulators, the health care industry, and consumers moved to make at-home testing a reliable tool for managing a public health crisis. But that fast-track focus is missing from another, less publicized epidemic: an explosion in sexually transmitted diseases that can cause chronic pain and infertility among infected adults and disable or kill infected newborns. The disparity has amplified calls from researchers, public health advocates, and health care companies urging the federal government to greenlight at-home testing kits that could vastly multiply the number of Americans testing for STDs. (Szabo, 11/18)

Editas Medicine, one of the small handful of original CRISPR companies, announced Thursday it is halting development on its first clinical program after data showed only a small subset of patients were responding. (Mast, 11/17)

Patients who get their prescription medications by mail in Oklahoma may soon have better protections for the safety of those drugs than any other state. On Wednesday, Oklahoma regulators proposed the nation’s first detailed rule to control temperatures during shipping, according to pharmacy experts. (Kaplan, 11/17)

A growing measles outbreak in Columbus, Ohio, has sickened dozens of unvaccinated children and hospitalized nine of them, and local public health officials are seeking assistance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We asked the CDC for assistance and they will be sending two epidemiologists at the end of the month to assist with our local investigation,” Kelli Newman, a spokesperson for Columbus Public Health, told CNN in an email Thursday. (Howard, 11/17)

Maine is backing down from some of its guidance for the medical marijuana industry by allowing the sale of pre-rolled products to resume. The Maine Office of Cannabis Policy last month banned medical marijuana caregivers without a storefront from providing pre-rolled products, and increased the age limit for pre-rolled products sold in stores from 18 to 21, the same as the age limit for recreational marijuana purchase. The guidance at the time suggested that a tobacco license was needed. (11/17)

According to a release from the Baker administration, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services has contracted with the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers to distribute the funds. The money was allocated from American Rescue Plan Act funding and from the Opioid Recovery and Remediation Trust Fund, which was established with proceeds from settlements with drugmakers that helped fuel the opioid epidemic. (Bartlett, 11/17)

Although COVID-19 has eased, the heightened need for food assistance that it spawned is showing few signs of abating, according to leaders of some local and regional food aid programs and area organizations. (Laidler, 11/17)

Lawyers for Michigan's former health director are urging an appeals court to quickly stop an effort to revive criminal charges related to the Flint water crisis of 2014-15. (White, 11/17)

In 1920, Sen. Warren G. Harding campaigned for president on one of the blandest platforms in U.S. history. He promised neither hope nor change, nor making America great again. Instead, his slogan — which would help him win an unprecedented 60 percent of the popular vote — was a “return to normalcy.” "America’s present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration; not agitation but adjustment; not surgery but serenity,” he told Americans in a speech four months before his victory. (McHugh, 11/13)

The 1917-18 flu pandemic was one of the most deadly infections, killing approximately 50 million people at its peak. Despite its severity and impact, information surrounding the pandemic was limited because of the heavy censorship during World War I. However, Hispanic publications of the time allow us to have a better understanding of the impact of this disease. (Lopez-Herrera, 11/15)

Vogue recently spoke to five people who have had medication abortions—while making sure to protect their anonymity, given the increased criminalization of people seeking abortions in the U.S. over the last year—about why they opted for a medication versus surgical abortion, what their experiences were like, and what they wish they’d known beforehand. (Specter, 11/13)

Efforts to make sex safer almost always focus on the bad stuff: what to do to avoid a terrible infection or potentially deadly virus. They rarely acknowledge the good stuff: usually the reason people have sex in the first place. And that’s why safe sex campaigns throughout the world aren’t as effective as they could be. Research shows that when safe sex campaigns acknowledge pleasure — by talking about sex as something that makes life good, or showing how condoms can be erotic — more people use a condom the next time they have sex. (Nolen, 11/15)

When Jeannette Martinez hugged her grandson on the last night of his life, she could feel his heart pounding. “Rio, are you doing meth?” she asked. The powerful stimulant methamphetamine can cause cardiac strain, and Rio Ryan had complained of chest pains. Also alarming that evening in March: pinholes Ms. Martinez saw between Mr. Ryan’s fingers, where she said the 21-year-old injected drugs. He giggled in response. He died the next morning in his basement bedroom at his grandmother’s house. (Kamp and Campo-Flores, 11/14)

As reparations to Black Americans for harms from centuries of slavery and structural racism has gained currency, it has mostly been discussed as monetary compensation for descendants of the formerly enslaved. A Nov. 3 symposium co-hosted by Harvard’s FXB Center for Health & Human Rights and Harvard Public Health magazine considered the issue from a different perspective—health. (Blanding, 11/15)

People around the world have discovered the joy of digging holes. TikTok is peppered with people showing the holes they’ve dug, often five or more feet deep. The video clips they upload often involve men—sometimes students on spring break—stripping to their waists and putting their backs into one physical, real-world thing for an extended period. Artists and scientists praise the benefits of digging holes for the raw focus it provides in a world full of distractions. (Hookway, 11/7)

Researchers have lately begun to rethink long-held dogmas about the properties of cartilage, the smooth layer of tissue that cushions the bones of the knee and other joints and whose breakdown is the primary cause of osteoarthritis. “Since cartilage doesn’t have a blood or nerve supply, we used to think it couldn’t adapt or repair itself,” said Michaela Khan, a doctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia and the lead author of the new review on running and cartilage, which was published in the journal Sports Medicine. But that’s not the case. (Hutchinson, 11/19)

Many of this year’s winners are finding creative solutions to systemic healthcare problems, from dramatically lowering the costs of prescription medication, and creating greater access to mental health services for communities of color, to building an easy-to-access opioid addiction recovery program with incredible retention rates. They’re business leaders, entrepreneurs, inventors, influencers, educators, and problem solvers. Each finalist has had a major accomplishment over the last year and is using their influence to increase health and wellness access and equity. (Brabaw, 11/16)

When the coronavirus pandemic hit and the world shut down in the spring of 2020, many mourned the loss of life, jobs and normalcy. Sam Bankman-Fried, then a 28-year-old cryptocurrency entrepreneur, and his brother Gabe, a 25-year-old congressional staffer, said the pandemic provided them with something else: an opportunity to make a difference. Harnessing the enormous wealth created by FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange that Sam Bankman-Fried had founded, they undertook a project to spend potentially billions of dollars on pandemic prevention, a long-neglected priority on Capitol Hill even amid the coronavirus crisis. (Diamond, 11/16)

The right to end pregnancy, which should be a fundamental human right, is under attack. Far less discussed is the right to begin pregnancy and what to do about the multitudes of women who want to conceive but cannot, who cannot afford to pay for expensive fertility procedures that virtually no insurance covers. (Jeanette Quick, 11/17)

Earlier this year, the Biden administration created ARPA-H, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, an organization with a mandate to push the limits of biomedical and health research centered around risk tolerance and a sense of urgency — and not just in the face of once-in-a-century global threats. (Marty Meehan and Julie Chen, 11/18)

The story of how the pandemic got started — and turned into a global catastrophe — remains a black box. It should not be. (11/17)

In Boston, hospitals are overcrowded with sick children. In all of New England, only a handful of pediatric intensive care beds are available. Illinois is doing only slightly better, for the moment — 4% of these specialized beds are available, and Chicago is almost out of beds. (Craig Klugman, Seema Shah and Michelle Macy, 11/17)

Next week is Thanksgiving, and while most Americans do not perceive covid-19 to be as dangerous as it was in 2020 or 2021, many readers have asked how to reduce their chances of contracting and spreading the coronavirus during holiday gatherings. (Leana S. Wen, 11/17)