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The World Health Organization on Thursday warned that it is struggling to identify and track new Covid variants as governments roll back testing and surveillance, threatening the progress made in the fight against the virus. (Kimball, 9/22)

U.S. health officials say 4.4 million Americans have rolled up their sleeves for the updated COVID-19 booster shot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted the count Thursday as public health experts bemoaned President Joe Biden’s recent remark that “the pandemic is over.” The White House said more than 5 million people received the new boosters by its own estimate that accounts for reporting lags in states. (Johnson, 9/23)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has signed off on Canada dropping the vaccine requirement for people entering the country at the end of September, an official familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Thursday. Canada, like the United States, requires foreign nationals to be vaccinated when entering the country. No change in the mandate is expected in the U.S. in the near term. (Gillies, 9/22)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Biden Declares The Pandemic ‘Over’ 

President Joe Biden’s declaration in a national interview that the covid-19 pandemic is “over” has complicated his own administration’s efforts to get Congress to provide more funding for treatments and vaccines, and to get the public to go get yet another booster. Meanwhile, concerns about a return of medical inflation for the first time in a decade is helping boost insurance premiums, and private companies are scrambling to claim their piece of the health care spending pie. (9/22)

Here's one more data point to consider in the back-and-forth about Pfizer's antiviral pill Paxlovid: A new analysis found it can meaningfully reduce COVID hospitalizations and deaths, even in those younger than 65. (Reed, 9/22)

Pfizer will supply up to six million Paxlovid treatments to the Global Fund in an effort toward equitable access to COVID-19 oral treatments, the company announced Thursday. (Habeshian, 9/22)

Two New Jersey-based companies have agreed to pay a total of $325,000 in fines for selling a pesticide that federal officials say was falsely marketed as a disinfectant spray that could help eliminate the coronavirus, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The product, Zoono Microbe Shield, from Zoono USA and Zoono Holdings, was sold online through Amazon and other websites and to community centers and was even purchased by United Airlines during the height of the pandemic to disinfect cabins, the E.P.A. said Wednesday in a statement announcing the settlement. (Oxenden, 9/22)

People who had COVID-19 are at higher risk for a host of brain injuries a year later compared with people who were never infected by the coronavirus, a finding that could affect millions of Americans, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday. The year-long study, published in Nature Medicine, assessed brain health across 44 different disorders using medical records without patient identifiers from millions of U.S. veterans. (Steenhuysen, 9/22)

Researchers have found that patients who have recovered from COVID-19, especially those who had severe disease, can later develop restrictive lung disease. COVID-19 patients who require a ventilator may also have recovery rates similar to those who require a ventilator for other conditions. Long-term recovery of lung function in these patients is still unknown. Drugs treating fibrotic lung disease after COVID-19 are currently undergoing clinical trials. (Sturek and Kadl, 9/22)

Covid-19 in children and teens appeared to raise the risk of developing diabetes in two studies that didn’t settle the debate about whether the coronavirus can trigger the chronic condition. Scientists from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health used national health registries to examine new diagnoses of type 1 diabetes over two years after the start of the pandemic. They found that youngsters who had tested positive for the coronavirus were about 60% more likely to develop type 1 diabetes. (Lyu, 9/22)

States cannot impose civil or criminal penalties on Department of Veterans Affairs doctors and nurses who provide abortion services that are allowed by federal law, a Department of Justice task force said in a new memo released Thursday. (Knutson, 9/22)

Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough told senators Wednesday night that the procedure was performed at one of the VA’s medical centers. A spokesperson, citing the client’s privacy, declined to provide the location or give further details. (Kube and Burke, 9/22)

An Indiana judge on Thursday blocked the state from enforcing its new law banning most abortions while Planned Parenthood and other healthcare providers challenge it in court. Circuit Court Judge Kelsey Hanlon ruled that Planned Parenthood and the other providers had shown a "reasonable likelihood" that the law's "significant restriction of personal autonomy" violates the Indiana constitution. (Pierson, 9/22)

Attorneys for the state of Idaho say a federal judge misinterpreted the law when he blocked part of a strict new abortion ban, and they say another law blocking all abortions after about six weeks’ gestation should also remain in effect. In court documents filed Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Brian Church asked U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill to reconsider his decision blocking the state from enforcing a strict abortion ban in medical emergencies, saying the judge misinterpreted both state and federal law and then issued an overly broad ruling. (Boone, 9/22)

A referendum on the Montana ballot in November raises the prospect of criminal charges for health care providers unless they take “all medically appropriate and reasonable actions to preserve the life” of an infant born alive, including after an attempted abortion. (Hanson, 9/22)

The survey conducted by EPIC-MRA this month found that abortion tied with inflation as the top issue among voters. Twenty-four percent of those surveyed ranked addressing abortion laws in Michigan following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade as the issue that concerns them the most, while the same share said controlling high prices for gas, food and other costs is their greatest worry. (Hendrickson, 9/22)

The White House and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said Thursday that a Republican-led proposal to ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks would endanger the health of women and have severe consequences for physicians. “If passed and enacted, this bill would create a nationwide health crisis, imperiling the health and lives of women in all 50 states,” according to a preliminary analysis of the bill by Jennifer Klein, the White House Gender Policy Council chairwoman, that was obtained by The Associated Press. “It would transform the practice of medicine, opening the door to doctors being thrown in jail if they fulfill their duty of care to patients according to their best medical judgment.” (Long, 9/22)

Voters in five states will consider abortion-related ballot measures in the Nov. 8 election, initiatives that have taken on new urgency after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. (Bernstein, 9/22)

Sen. Tammy Duckworth has been outspoken about how she used in vitro fertilization (IVF) to grow her family. And now that Sen. Lindsey Graham has introduced a national 15-week abortion ban, Duckworth is highlighting how abortion restrictions could make going through IVF difficult — or even impossible. (Gerson, 9/22)

A company’s stance on abortion rights matters when it comes to retaining female talent. In a  new survey from the women’s investment platform Ellevest, 44% of US women said they would leave their current job if their employer’s views on reproductive rights didn’t align with their own. That number jumped to 56% for millennial women, who are the largest generational cohort in the workforce. About one in three, or 35% of workers are millennials. (Ceron, 9/22)

Amid ongoing debate over the cost of prescription medicines, a new analysis finds that brand-name drugmakers increased their wholesale prices by 4.9% in the second quarter this year, up slightly from 4.4% a year earlier. But when accounting for inflation, wholesale prices fell by 3.7%, and inflationary pressures are likely to push wholesale prices still higher. (Silverman, 9/23)

Some key House Republicans are calling for the repeal of Democrats' newly-passed drug pricing measure if the GOP flips control of one or both chambers of Congress next year. (Sullivan and Knight, 9/23)

Senate and House health committee leaders on Thursday reached an agreement to renew programs that fund key Food and Drug Administration programs for another five years. (Knight and Sullivan, 9/22)

As the 40th anniversary of the 1982 Tylenol murders approaches, investigators are working with prosecutors on a now-or-maybe-never effort to hold a longtime suspect responsible for the poisonings that killed seven people in the Chicago area, the Tribune has learned. (Gutowski and St. Clair, 9/22)

Digital health care has its advantages. Privacy isn’t one of them. In a nation with millions of uninsured families and a shortage of health professionals, many of us turn to health-care apps and websites for accessible information or even potential treatment. But when you fire up a symptom-checker or digital therapy app, you might be unknowingly sharing your concerns with more than just the app maker. (Hunter and Merrill, 9/22)

Newly published details about a high-profile Apple Watch study call it “a priority” to recruit Medicaid patients — a population not usually considered the target for Apple’s pricey products. (Aguilar, 9/22)

Michigan Medicine and the union representing about 6,200 nurses have reached a tentative agreement, more than two months after their contract expired, according to a news release from the union. The Michigan Nurses Association-University of Michigan Professional Nurse Council had sparred over contract negotiations and what the union called a "refusal to bargain over safe workloads." The parties had been bargaining since March 15, and the contract expired June 30. (9/22)

Providers want the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to change a forthcoming policy on reimbursement for hospital visits when both physicians and non-physician providers see patients. CMS’ recent physician fee schedule regulation proposes to delay until 2024 a requirement that time spent with a patient would determine which provider could bill for a visit. CMS originally planned to start the policy next January. (Goldman, 9/22)

The Texas Medical Association filed its second lawsuit against the federal government’s surprise billing arbitration process Thursday. An August rule on the independent dispute resolution for surprise medical bills still unlawfully favors insurers over providers, the medical association alleges in its complaint to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. (Goldman, 9/22)

Humana Inc. and CVS Health Corp. are circling Cano Health Inc., according to people familiar with the situation, as healthcare heavyweights scramble to snap up primary-care providers. The talks are serious and a deal to purchase Cano could be struck in the next several weeks, assuming the negotiations don’t fall apart, some of the people said. (Cooper and Cimilluca, 9/22)

Mass General Brigham has said it will reduce its total medical spending by $127.8 million annually, nearly doubling its commitment to reduce its spending after months of discussions with a state watchdog agency. The filing is part of the hospital’s “performance improvement plan,” which was required by the state’s Health Policy Commission after what it said were years of spending above acceptable levels. (Bartlett, 9/22)

Northwell Health’s systemwide fundraising campaign has surpassed its $1 billion goal, prompting the health system to commit to raising an additional $400 million by the end of 2024, executives plan to announce Thursday. (Kaufman, 9/22)

IU Health has opened a $10 million state-of-the-art out-patient family medicine center on the site of the former Wishard Hospital emergency room near Indiana Avenue and 10th Street. The need was created when the former medical center along Senate Avenue was demolished to make way for the new IU Health Hospital on the medical campus in downtown Indianapolis. (Rudavsky, 9/23)

St. Vincent Healthcare in Billings has been named the 2022 Best Place to Work in the large hospital category by the Montana Hospital Association. For the past two years, the hospital has been named the “Top Place to Work in Billings,” however this is the first time that they have won this award specific to their industry. (Slater, 9/22)

Los Angeles public schools will stock campuses with the overdose reversal drug naloxone in the aftermath of a student’s death at Bernstein High School, putting the nation’s second-largest school system on the leading edge of a strategy increasingly favored by public health experts. (Blume, 9/22)

Gov. Steve Sisolak announced Thursday the launch of a free prescription drug card for Nevada residents that can save them money on both generic and brand-name medications. The ArrayRX digital discount card saves on average 80 percent on the cost without insurance of generic drugs and up to 20 percent on brand-name medications, he said. (Hynes, 9/22)

A judge in Oregon’s Washington County has ruled against the county’s 2021 ban on flavored tobacco products, meaning adults over 21 can still buy them. Circuit Judge Andrew Erwin wrote in his opinion this week that the decision to disallow licensed retail sale of such products must come from the state, not county by county, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. (9/22)

Preliminary federal data shows Louisiana has the nation’s fourth-highest rate of dangerous West Nile virus infections, so people should protect themselves from mosquitoes, the state Department of Health says. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says only South Dakota, Colorado and North Dakota have higher rates of West Nile virus infections affecting the brain or nervous system. (9/22)

KHN: In Jackson, The Water Is Back, But The Crisis Remains 

In mid-September, Howard Sanders bumped down pothole-ridden streets in a white Cadillac weighed down with water bottles on his way to a home in Ward 3, a neglected neighborhood that he called “a war zone.” Sanders, director of marketing and outreach for Central Mississippi Health Services, was then greeted at the door by Johnnie Jones. Since Jones’ hip surgery about a month ago, the 74-year-old had used a walker to get around and hadn’t been able to get to any of the city’s water distribution sites. (Rayasam, 9/23)

The National Institutes of Health on Thursday announced more than $600 million in fresh funding for an expansive and ongoing push to unravel the mysteries of the human brain, bankrolling efforts to create a detailed map of the whole brain, and devise new ways to target therapeutics and other molecules to specific brain cell populations. (Wosen, 9/22)

The decline in cancer deaths has accelerated in recent years, reaching a 2.3% annual drop every year between 2016 and 2019, according to the latest American Association for Cancer Research Cancer Progress report. (Reed, 9/22)

The great strides in cancer survivability seen in recent decades could be undercut by fallout from the pandemic, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and continued disparities in health care access, scientists warn. (O'Reilly, 9/22)

The past decade has witnessed a rapid expansion of genetic tests, including new instruments to inform patients who have been diagnosed with breast cancer about the risk of recurrence and to guide their treatment. But the clinical significance of many of the inherited mutations that can now be identified remains unclear, and experts are torn on when and how to deploy all the new tests available. Patients are sometimes left paying out-of-pocket for exams that are not yet the standard of care, and even the most up-to-date oncologists may be uncertain how to incorporate the flood of new information into what used to be standard treatment protocols. (Andrews, 9/20)

Biotechnology is full of tantalizing promises, but few as appealing as this: a test that can screen for any kind of cancer early, allowing patients to start treatment early and have a better chance at surviving. These tests, often called multi-cancer early-detection tests, search for bits of DNA that are shed by tumor cells into the bloodstream. ... But scientists have faced challenges with the technology. Identifying where a cancer comes from is scientifically complicated, though at least one company is using machine learning to solve that. And although early research shows that some private companies are finding success, many tests still struggle with accuracy. (Verma, 9/22)

The White House is pitching an added benefit to Democrats’ recent drug pricing reform package: lower cancer death rates. (Cohrs, 9/23)

For the first time since gifting Harvard University $500 million to launch a new research institute, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan visited the school Thursday to talk about their ambitious goal to study the basis of intelligence. The couple, who originally met at Harvard, were in Boston to celebrate the launch of the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence, which will focus on the brain and AI systems — and what scientists don’t know about both. (Gardizy, 9/22)

Dr. Emmanuel Mignot of the Stanford University School of Medicine will share the $3 million prize with Masashi Yanagisawa of Japan’s University of Tsukuba for discovering the cause of a chronic sleep disorder called narcolepsy, paving the way for the development of new treatments for the overwhelming daytime drowsiness and sudden attacks of exhaustion. (Kreiger, 9/22)

A move by Optum to change longstanding practices for licensing data to academic institutions has sparked an outcry among researchers, who argue the move will make accessing data so costly and difficult that universities will scale back their research programs. (Ross, 9/23)

Federal data shows most people who need treatment for opioid use disorder don’t get it. Yet nearly every state has laws that limit access to opioid treatment programs, according to a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts. (Benson, 9/22)

Higher temperatures mean higher levels of ozone, a gas that forms from burning fossil fuels. That’s a particular concern for inner-city kids of formerly redlined neighborhoods because of the urban heat island effect, which occurs when certain neighborhoods are exposed to more pollutions. These communities also have less green spaces. All of those factors make these areas hotter than other parts of a city, explained Dr. Bridgette Jones, an allergist and pediatrician at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. (Hassanein, 9/22)

Reusable contact lens users are almost four times as likely as those wearing daily disposables to develop a rare sight-threatening eye infection, a study has found. The researchers suggest people should avoid wearing their lenses while swimming, or in the shower, and that packaging should include "no water" stickers. (Massey, 9/23)

Taking a dip in icy water may cut bad body fat in men and reduce the risk of disorders such as diabetes, a new study suggests. Researchers looked at 104 studies and found that many reported significant effects from cold water swimming, including also on good fat which helps burn calories. (Massey, 9/23)

Claudia Donohue was on the operating table first thing in the morning. It wasn’t where she wanted to end up when she first learned she had lung cancer. (Chen, 9/23)

KHN: Hemp-Derived Delta-8 Skirts Marijuana Laws And Raises Health Concerns 

Suzan Kennedy has smoked marijuana, and says her Wisconsin roots mean she can handle booze, so she was not concerned earlier this year when a bartender in St. Paul, Minnesota, described a cocktail with the cannabinoid delta-8 THC as “a little bit potent.” Hours after enjoying the tasty drink and the silliness that reminded Kennedy of a high from weed, she said, she started to feel “really shaky and faint” before collapsing in her friend’s arms. Kennedy regained consciousness and recovered, but her distaste for delta-8 remains, even though the substance is legal at the federal level, unlike marijuana. (Berger, 9/23)

KHN: Shattered Dreams And Bills In The Millions: Losing A Baby In America

The day after his 8-month-old baby died, Kingsley Raspe opened the mail and found he had been sent to collections for her care. That notice involved a paltry sum, $26.50 — absurd really, given he’d previously been told he owed $2.5 million for treatment of his newborn’s congenital heart defect and other disorders. (Weber, 9/23)

The Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria on Wednesday reached $14.25 billion pledged as world leaders seek to fight the killer diseases after progress was knocked off course by the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. President Joe Biden, who hosted the conference in New York on the sidelines of the annual high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, said the funding is crucial to combating the diseases. (Psaledakis and Holland, 9/21)

Tattoos and medicine may seem an unlikely pair, but medical tattoos are nothing new. Religious tattoos of ancient Egyptians honored the gods and, possibly, directed divine healing to ailing body parts. Circa A.D. 150, Galen, a Greek physician working in the Roman Empire, tattooed pigment onto patients’ corneas to reduce glare and improve their eyesight. (Diep, 9/22)

The rehabilitation of psilocybin as a medical treatment raises some concerns. Some scientists worry about the drug, which can induce psychosis in some people, becoming widely available outside of clinical settings. And they are loath to see a repeat of the 1960s embrace of recreational LSD, which caused much harm and set research into psychedelics back decades. But many scientists in the mental health profession believe that the risks pale against the potential benefits, which include not only effective treatments for depression but also a new understanding of the neural basis of many mental health disorders. (Piore, 9/22)

Since PTSD was first included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1980, clinicians have identified a handful of therapies that help people cope with traumatic memories. Over the past decade, a seemingly unconventional treatment has wedged its way into mainstream therapy. (Blum, 9/19)

A cashier with psoriasis received daily complaints from customers at work. A traveler with eczema was escorted off a flight and questioned by airline employees. A commuter with small, benign tumors on her body was unknowingly filmed and scrutinized on social media. All of them were singled out because people mistakenly believed they had monkeypox. (Morris, 9/22)

As a walk-on long snapper — even one at powerhouse Alabama — Kneeland Hibbett doesn’t figure to rake in a lucrative endorsement deal. What he does earn he wants to put to good use. The grandson of a Crimson Tide national champion, Hibbett has pledged to donate a share of his name, image and likeness proceeds to the Concussion Legacy Foundation, which works with former football players and others who developed traumatic brain injuries from repeated hits to the head. (Golen, 9/20)

For humans, biologically speaking, soul mates are entirely real. But just like all relationships, soul mates can be complicated. Of course, there isn’t a scientifically agreed-upon definition for “soul mate.” But humans are in a small club in the animal kingdom that can form long-term relationships. I’m not talking about sexual monogamy. Humans evolved with the neurocircuitry to see another person as special. We have the capacity to single someone out from the crowd, elevate them above all others and then spend decades with them. (Levine, 9/16)

Many yoga practitioners tout the potential health benefits of the headstand, saying the pose clears the mind, energizes the body and improves blood flow to the brain. Also known as Sirsasana, the headstand has a legion of celebrity fans: In a 2020 interview, Paul McCartney gushed about doing headstands to finish his workouts at the then-ripe old age of 78, and Dua Lipa capped a recent Vogue interview by performing one on camera. But experts say you shouldn’t just try one on your own, because a headstand can be medically risky for some people. (Mulcahy, 9/18)

Three months after the Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate the constitutional right to abortion in the United States shocked people across Europe, Republican lawmakers have astonished Europeans again with claims that 47 of 50 European countries ban abortion after 15 weeks. (Leah Hoctor, 9/22)

As a pediatrician and a parent of a transgender son, I have become increasingly alarmed by the level of vitriol in the U.S. surrounding the provision of gender-affirming care to children and adolescents. (Carole Allen, 9/23)

For too long, there hasn’t been an easy, safe way for someone experiencing suicidal thoughts or a mental health crisis to get immediate help. Fortunately, that appears to be changing thanks to 988. (Hannah Wesolowski, 9/21)

“This is not something that we can mandate on our own.” It’s a sentiment that could apply to so much in healthcare. But in this case, it’s one of the many quotes in our compelling cover story, which delves into a complicated topic: how to keep medical supplies and devices safe for patients without potentially sickening people through the processes used to sterilize those products. (Mary Ellen Podmolik, 9/20)

The continuing spread of SARS-CoV-2 remains a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. What physicians need to know about transmission, diagnosis, and treatment of Covid-19 is the subject of ongoing updates from infectious disease experts at the Journal. (Eric J. Rubin, M.D., Ph.D., Lindsey R. Baden, M.D., and Stephen Morrissey, Ph.D., 9/22)