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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Wednesday that the COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatment bebtelovimab from Eli Lilly is no longer authorized for emergency use in the U.S. as it is not expected to be effective at neutralizing the two most dominant omicron subvariants in the country right now. (Choi, 11/30)

Eli Lilly, the maker of bebtelovimab, has stopped the commercial distribution of the treatment, the FDA said. Various companies are working on updated antibody therapies, but none appears close to being authorized. (Joseph, 11/30)

Pregnant women can safely take the antiviral drug Paxlovid to reduce the risk of serious COVID-19 pregnancy or fetal complications, according to a small study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. (11/30)

Former President Bill Clinton announced Wednesday that he has tested positive for Covid-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms. “I’m grateful to be vaccinated and boosted, which has kept my case mild, and I urge everyone to do the same, especially as we move into the winter months,” Clinton said in a tweet. The former president, 76, added that he is “doing fine overall and keeping myself busy at home.” (LeBlanc, 11/30)

Infants younger than 6 months had the same rate of hospitalization as seniors age 65 to 74 during this summer’s Omicron wave, according to a new report. The findings, published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, show that COVID-19 can still cause severe and fatal outcomes in children too young to be vaccinated. (Lin II and Money, 11/30)

Republican Gov. Jim Justice said Wednesday that West Virginia’s state of emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic will end at the start of the new year. The state of emergency has been in effect since March 16, 2020. It allows the governor to suspend certain rules on personnel and purchasing. (Willingham, 11/30)

Nearly all Republican governors and 13 GOP Senate lawmakers are taking aim at the Biden administration’s military COVID-19 vaccine mandate, with the two groups on Wednesday urging congressional leadership to try to alter or altogether dismantle the ruling. The 21 GOP governors, led by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, issued a joint letter to top lawmakers asking them to “take immediate action to remove and prohibit” the mandate. (Mitchell, 11/30)

Texas hasn’t had a hospital close since 2020, a much-needed relief following the previous decade of closures that were predominantly seen in rural communities. That could change soon: A new report from Kaufman Hall, a health care consulting agency, that was made public Wednesday shows that nearly 1 out of every 10 Texas hospitals are now at risk of closure, twice as many as before the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020. (Lozano, 11/30)

Participants infected with Omicron were at comparable risk of long-COVID symptoms as those with Delta infections 14 to 126 days after diagnosis, including during the acute (14 to 29 days), sub-acute (30 to 89 days), and long COVID (90 days or later) phases. Symptoms included fatigue, cough, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, anxiety/depression, and brain fog. (Van Beusekom, 11/30)

Sam Norpel used to present regular financial updates to C-suite executives. Now, unpredictable bouts of broken, staccato speech make that impossible for the former e-commerce executive. (Iacurci, 11/30)

The U.S. health regulator on Wednesday approved Switzerland-based Ferring Pharmaceuticals' fecal transplant-based therapy to reduce the recurrence of a bacterial infection, making it the first therapy of its kind to be cleared in the United States. The therapy, Rebyota, targets Clostridium difficile, or C. difficile – a superbug responsible for infections that can cause serious and life-threatening diarrhea. In the United States, the infection is associated with 15,000-30,000 deaths annually. (11/30)

Rebyota has been in development for about a decade; a key Phase 1 study was first posted to ClinicalTrials.gov in 2013. That decade hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing for microbiome therapeutics. Although investors were intrigued by bacteria-based drug candidates in the early 2010s, interest dropped sharply in 2016 after a significant clinical trial failed. But the field did recover — and patient advocates, drug developers and even regulators have been anticipating this day for years.  (Sheridan and DeAngelis, 11/30)

C. diff is a bacterial infection you’ve likely never heard of, although it causes almost half a million infections in the US yearly. Half of those with Clostridioides difficile, as it is formally called, require hospitalization, and if you are over 65, 10% die. It’s the most common cause of healthcare-associated infection but is increasingly seen in the community. Recurrences are common, plaguing at least 20% of patients. (11/28)

Experts estimate that up to 40% of the contaminants in our home were brought in from the outside. For comparison, University of Houston research examined swabs of shoe bottoms and toilet seats, finding that the shoes had higher levels of C.diff, a bacteria resistant to antibiotics. (McDonald, 11/29)

Gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships would be allowed to donate blood without abstaining from sex under guidelines being drafted by the Food and Drug Administration, people familiar with the plans said. The change would be a departure from U.S. policy that for many years barred men who have sex with men from donating blood. (Whyte and Marcus, 11/30)

Thursday is World AIDS Day, a day to remember those who died due to AIDS-related complications and an opportunity to uplift the lives of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS."I was told I was HIV-positive, and in the same breath, my doctor said get your affairs in order, you have an average of two to three years to live," Brooklyn resident Alejandro Santiago said. That was back in 1992 when Santiago was 33 years old, and the HIV/AIDS crisis was sweeping across the nation. (Dias, 12/1)

Robert Suttle was 30 when he was arrested and imprisoned for the felony of “intentional exposure to the Aids virus”. He had met the man at a gay club on New Year’s Eve 2007 and they had quickly begun a relationship. Suttle says he disclosed his status as HIV-positive to his partner immediately. However, when the couple separated a few months later, the man pressed charges claiming that Suttle had not disclosed his status. Suttle now views this as “retaliation” over the breakup. (Abraham, 11/30)

The number of people in Europe with undiagnosed HIV has risen as testing rates fell during the COVID-19 pandemic, threatening a global goal of ending the disease by 2030, a report said. (11/30)

In a terrorism advisory bulletin, the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday raised concerns about potential threats to the LGBTQ, Jewish and migrant communities from violent extremists inside the United States. (Ainsley, 11/30)

The Biden administration is eyeing an end to its public health emergency declaration for mpox, a sign that officials believe they’ve brought the monthslong outbreak under control. Health officials are likely to issue a 60-day notice later this week for winding down the declaration, two people with knowledge of the matter told POLITICO. Such a move would put it on track to officially expire by Jan. 31. (Cancryn, 11/30)

Indiana’s attorney general, Todd Rokita, asked a state medical board on Wednesday to discipline the doctor who provided an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim this summer. Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, treated the girl, who had traveled from Ohio when the state enacted a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. (Sasani and Stolberg, 11/30)

Facing a looming ballot battle, Republican lawmakers are poised to clarify exceptions in the state's six-week abortion ban rather than ban the procedure entirely before the end of the year. Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said Wednesday that it's "highly unlikely" that lawmakers will ban abortion from the point of conception this year. But expect some legislation aimed at clarifying when doctors can perform abortions to save the mother's life. (Balmert and Bischoff, 12/1)

The future of abortion access in Arizona remains in limbo after a three-judge panel in Tucson heard arguments Wednesday on the validity and application of a near-total ban from 1864 — and whether it can coexist with a 15-week ban passed this year. (Gomez, 11/30)

Kansas providers might not be ready for months to do telemedicine abortions even though a state-court judge has blocked the state from enforcing its ban on teleconferencing with patients seeking pregnancy-ending medications. (Hanna, 11/30)

Roger Coody has no legal training and his political experience until recently had been limited to registering people to vote. Now, the Oklahoma hairstylist is pushing a ballot proposal he wrote that would make abortion access a constitutional right in his deeply red state, where Republican lawmakers have banned the procedure in nearly all circumstances. It’s part of a growing trend across the nation to put reproductive freedom to a popular vote after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed the right to abortion nationwide for nearly 50 years. (Coronado and Murphy, 11/30)

The Pueblo city council plans to vote on a measure that would effectively ban abortions within the city limits, the first proposal of this kind in Colorado since the U.S Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The ordinance, which faces uphill odds of passing the politically divided council, would seek to use a mechanism similar to the law in Texas that bans abortions after six weeks and empowers local citizens, not the government, to file claims against abortion providers. (Birkeland, 12/1)

After Roe fell, a sleepy college town in Southern Illinois found itself to be a crucial destination for abortion access. Not all of its residents are happy about it. (Sasani and Schaff, 11/30)

It’s a moment of panic that has played out again and again for people in more than a dozen states since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. Once they find out they’re pregnant, there isn’t much time to act. The closest open abortion clinics that once offered next-day appointments are now often fully booked three, four, even five weeks in advance. Pills purchased online can take up to a month to arrive. (Kitchener, 12/1)

KHN: Montana’s New Sex Ed Law Ensnares English And History Lessons, Too

A Montana law requiring public schools to notify parents of lessons that mention human sexuality — and allowing parents to pull their children from those lessons — has reached further and been more cumbersome than anticipated, according to two school district leaders. School districts across the state have spent months consulting with attorneys and retooling their policies to ensure they are in compliance with the law passed in 2021. Senate Bill 99 requires parents to be notified at least 48 hours in advance about lessons related to sexual education, as well as other topics, including anatomy, intimate relationships, sexual orientation, gender identity, contraception, and reproductive rights. (Graf, 12/1)

Higher expenses due to staff shortages and fewer patients are straining finances in the hospital sector, which is on track to end the year with negative margins, according to data Kaufman Hall published Wednesday. (Devereaux, 11/30)

Cleveland Clinic’s net losses for the year so far have exceeded $1.5 billion as labor costs remain elevated. The Ohio-based nonprofit reported $316.3 million in operating losses in the first three quarters of 2022, compared with a $549.44 million gain in the year-ago period, according to financial statements released this week. Investment losses totaled $1.26 billion. (Hudson, 11/30)

Cleveland Clinic, a growing player in international healthcare, is expanding its global network of in-country representatives to five new locations: Canada, China, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico. (11/29)

General Electric Co. set the terms for the spinoff of its healthcare division, putting an initial value of roughly $31 billion on the soon-to-be-public company. GE said current shareholders would get one share in the new GE HealthCare Technologies Inc. for every three shares they hold in GE. The separation is set for Jan. 3 after the markets close, and the new shares will trade on Nasdaq under the symbol GEHC.  (Gryta, 11/30)

A pandemic-driven workaround that delivers hospital-level care in patients' homes could become a bargaining chip as Congress hashes out a year-end spending deal. (Dreher and Reed, 12/1)

Union nurses protested Tuesday morning in Kissimmee over an Osceola County hospital’s decision to cut its newborn nursery unit, which they say will force low-income, high-risk patients to pay the price. (Pedersen, 11/30)

“A few minutes after 1 p.m. we’re going to start marching,” a faculty member announced to a crowd of about 50 on the Johns Hopkins University campus Wednesday afternoon. The group had gathered to protest the proposed creation of a private armed university police force. (LeBoeuf, 11/30)

In a study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Network Open, University of Minnesota researchers found that the language doctors often use tends not to translate easily into everyday English. A positive test result, for example, generally suggests something negative: A disease like Covid, for example, has been detected. (Edwards, 11/30)

Black and Hispanic residents were far more likely than white residents to visit hospital emergency departments for care, even before the pandemic, according to a new state analysis released Wednesday. (Bartlett, 11/30)

For the staff at the Senior Recovery Center in Maplewood, Minn., helping older adults overcome substance use disorders is a calling, said Christine Martinek, a licensed alcohol and drug counselor there. But it’s a more challenging calling when the adults who need treatment are on Medicare. (Hellmann, 11/30)

Fentanyl testing strips would be decriminalized under a bill the Ohio House passed Wednesday with overwhelming bipartisan support, advancing a proposal that proponents say would help prevent fatal overdoses and save lives. The strips, which are used to detect the powerful synthetic opioid often found laced in other drugs, would no longer be classified as illegal drug paraphernalia under the measure. (Hendrickson, 11/30)

A 10-month-old baby suffered an accidental fentanyl overdose Tuesday at a Marina district playground, the boy’s father told The Chronicle in an interview, a medical emergency that required paramedics to administer overdose-reversing medication Narcan. (Moench, 11/30)

When his father opened the door to Zach Didier’s bedroom, the boy seemed asleep at his desk, still wearing plaid pajama bottoms and a yellow T-shirt. His head rested in the crook of his left arm, near his soccer trophies and the computer where he played Minecraft with friends. But Chris Didier sensed something was terribly wrong. “As I got within two feet of him, I didn’t feel what I would normally feel,” he said. “When you approach a dead body, there is a void there, and I’d never sensed that before, and that’s when my world was destroyed.” (Barrett, 11/30)

KHN: Addiction Treatment Proponents Urge Rural Clinicians To Pitch In By Prescribing Medication 

Andrea Storjohann is glad to see that she’s becoming less of a rarity in rural America. The nurse practitioner prescribes medication to dozens of patients trying to recover from addiction to heroin or opioid painkillers. The general-practice clinic where she works, housed in a repurposed supermarket building, has no signs designating it as a place for people to seek treatment for drug addiction, which is how Storjohann wants it. (Leys, 12/1)

About 40% of cannabis products purchased from 20 illicit stores in New York City were found to contain harmful contaminants such as E. coli, lead and salmonella, according to a report commissioned by the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association. One of the products purchased also included double the amount of advertised THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. (Pollard, 11/30)

At a time when many Americans are clamoring for more transparency into prescription drug pricing, one key provider of that data is making it harder to access the information. A new venture called Merative — which was formed recently from the ashes of IBM’s Watson Health division — has decided it will no longer provide the media with pricing changes for specific medicines. (Silverman and Ross, 12/1)

Dramatic stories about weight loss seem to be everywhere on social media. Jennifer Huber, who shared her own story online, has lost more than 50 pounds in five months after starting Mounjaro, an injectable drug approved to treat her Type 2 diabetes. "It's this miracle," Huber said. "I've got to pinch myself sometimes to say, is this real?" (LaPook, 11/30)

The failure of a once-promising Alzheimer’s disease medicine from Roche appears to have a simple explanation: The drug didn’t do its job. (Garde and Wosen, 11/30)

As ranking member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Rep. Mike Bost (R. Ill.), has spent more than a year in a bi-partisan push to make more funding available to researchers at the Veterans Administration. The Infrastructure Powers Exceptional Research (VIPER) Act, which he co-sponsored with committee chairman Mark Takano (D-Cal), won full house approval in mid-October. (Cordera, 11/30)

Previously, the brain was thought to be where all such complex sensations were processed. But in a study published Nov. 23 in Nature, the researchers discovered that the spinal cord, formerly thought to simply relay information to the brain, actually plays a role in differentiating one type of touch from another. (Mohammed, 11/30)

In a presentation showcasing the Neuralink implant that Elon Musk hopes will someday connect the human brain to a computer, two monkeys were reportedly moving computer cursors with their brains. The feat was first documented by others in a human in 2006 in the pre-YouTube era and with technology that is far more cumbersome, mooring patients to a computer with a cord. (Jewett and Metz, 11/30)

For decades, Yale has “treated unequally and failed to accommodate students with mental health disabilities, including by modifying policies, in violation of federal law,” according to the suit filed Wednesday by two students and a mental-health advocacy group, Elis for Rachel Inc. They seek class-action status for complaint filed in New Haven, Connecticut, where Yale is located. (Maglione, 11/30)

"Mayor Adams continues to get it wrong when it comes to his reliance on ineffective surveillance, policing, and involuntary transport and treatment of people with mental illness," Jacquelyn Simone, policy director for the Coalition for the Homeless, said in a statement on Tuesday. "Homeless people are more likely to be the victims of crimes than the perpetrators, but Mayor Adams has continually scapegoated homeless people and others with mental illness as violent. (Heyward, 11/30)

One company on the cutting edge of psychedelic-assisted therapy is hoping to minimize the negative mental health impact of a layoff with a free month of ketamine therapy. You heard that right—Field Trip Health, a company that provides psychedelic-enhanced therapy virtually, in person, and hybrid, announced today in an exclusive with Fortune that it will offer services free of charge to people who got laid off from a host of companies—including Twitter, Meta, Stripe, and others. (Mikhail, 11/30)

A suicide prevention net on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge that is already years behind schedule will cost about $400 million, more than double its original price, because of problems sparked by the government agency that manages the span, the lead contractors allege. (Rodriguez, 11/30)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expanding efforts to test wastewater to detect the polio virus in Philadelphia and the Detroit area, targeting communities at highest risk for the life-threatening and potentially disabling illness, officials said Wednesday. (Sun, 11/30)

The number of cases in a measles outbreak in Columbus has nearly doubled over the past two weeks, with exposures being reported in three places across the city, according to public health officials. (Walker, 11/30)

An emergency-squad medic enters a subway station to find a number of people injured by a bomb explosion, but the scene isn't real. The medic is. The scene is instead created by digital virtual reality, and is being used as a tool to help train emergency-medical personnel in incidents with mass casualties. (Comstock, 11/30)

Four weeks after a state superior court judge issued a far-reaching ruling ordering North Carolina to deliver services in home settings to people with developmental and intellectual disabilities, the state is appealing the decision. (Blythe, 12/1)

More than two years have passed since Hemant “Henry” Patel, a beloved and respected cardiologist, died in a New Hanover County hospital after a dental implant procedure spiraled out of his oral surgeon’s control. (Blythe, 12/1)

KHN: Her Apartment Might Have Put Her Son’s Health At Risk. But ‘I Have Nowhere Else To Go.’ 

When Louana Joseph’s son had a seizure because of an upper respiratory infection in July, she abandoned the apartment her family had called home for nearly three years. She suspected the gray and brown splotches spreading through the apartment were mold and had caused her son’s illness. Mold can trigger and exacerbate lung diseases such as asthma and has been linked to upper respiratory tract conditions. But leaving the two-bedroom Atlanta apartment meant giving up a home that rented for less than $1,000 a month, a price that is increasingly hard to find even in the nation’s poorest neighborhoods. (Rayasam and Clasen-Kelly, 12/1)

Using state-of-the-art whole-genome sequencing and machine learning techniques, researchers conducted one of the first and the largest investigations of tandem repeats in schizophrenia, elucidating their contribution to the development of this devastating disease. (University Of North Carolina Health Care, 11/30)

Iron content is increased in the substantia nigra of persons with Parkinson’s disease and may contribute to the pathophysiology of the disorder. Early research suggests that the iron chelator deferiprone can reduce nigrostriatal iron content in persons with Parkinson’s disease, but its effects on disease progression are unclear. (Devos et al, 12/1)

Opioid agonist therapy is strongly recommended for pregnant persons with opioid use disorder. Buprenorphine may be associated with more favorable neonatal and maternal outcomes than methadone, but existing data are limited. (Suarez et al, 12/1)

"There are still many unanswered questions about the long-term impacts of Zika on children exposed in utero," said Sarah Mulkey, MD, PhD, the study's first author, in a press release. "These findings are another piece of the puzzle that provides insight into the long-term neurodevelopment of children with prenatal Zika virus exposure. Further evaluation is needed as these children get older." (11/30)

Increasing intake of protein and drinking regular cups of tea or coffee is a way women could reduce their risk of suffering a hip fracture, according to new research. (University of Leeds, 11/28)

Teens with attention deficit–hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk for motor vehicle collisions. A computerized skills-training program to reduce long glances away from the roadway, a contributor to collision risk, may ameliorate driving risks among teens with ADHD. (Epstein et al, 12/1)

Measles is one of the most contagious human viruses — more so than the coronavirus — and is spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes. (11/30)

Not only has COVID-19 killed a million Americans, it also has slowed the bipartisan effort to close the books on another terrible virus, HIV/AIDS. (James Glassman, 12/1)

As we mark another World AIDS Day on Dec.1, I wish I could say we are only looking back and remembering those who have been lost to AIDS. But I can tell from the questions I receive on a daily basis that many people don’t know much about this devastating disease and where we stand in 2022. (Cece Cox, 12/1)

Arriving at Uganda’s Entebbe airport, I was struck by the miles of carpentry shops on the road to Kampala, building wooden coffins. It was the mid-1980s and I was studying the epicentre of a new condition devastating Africa: AIDS. (Mukesh Kapila, 12/1)

When the annual enrollment period for Medicare ends on Dec. 7, analysts expect that, for the first time, more seniors will receive their 2023 health-care coverage from Medicare Advantage than the traditional program. (Helaine Olen, 11/30)

A recent essay in Health Affairs, a prominent health care journal, proposed a useful-sounding idea: The government should create a new federal designation for “essential hospitals” — hospitals that, according to their own metrics, serve a safety-net role but aren’t currently recognized as such. But it isn’t useful at all. (Elise Amez-Droz, 12/1)

Lately, children in the emergency department often wait hours before seeing a doctor. Those ill enough to be admitted might wait days for an available bed. This means children seeking help for any medical condition, including seizures, broken bones, or allergic reactions, must also wait longer to receive medical care. For sick children today, having an available caregiver nearby is especially invaluable. (Ashinoff, 12/1)