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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, is scheduled to brief reporters from the White House on Tuesday in what is likely to be his final briefing before leaving the government at the end of the year. Fauci was expected to press the idea that Americans should get up-to-date on their COVID and flu shots ahead of winter. (Flaherty, 11/22)

Fauci, 81, will join Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for his final health briefing, where he is poised to discuss his National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' progress on vaccinations - and new actions to increase those numbers. Also expected to attend is White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Ashish K. Jha, as the Biden Administration looks to highlight Covid risks ahead of possible winter surge. (Hammer, 11/22)

Anthony S. Fauci has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984 and has been the public face of the government’s response to COVID-19. On Thursday, Dec. 1 at 11:00 a.m. ET, join Washington Post White House reporter Yasmeen Abutaleb for a conversation with Fauci about the state of the pandemic, the future of public health and the lessons he has learned from more than a half-century of public service as he prepares to step down. (11/22)

Doctors, nurses, and epidemiologists say there are several things at play contributing to the big viral soup — and they are wary of dismissing it with any one simple explanation, like "immunity debt." ... But in conversations with eight leading infectious disease experts, Insider found five complex and interwoven factors that may be driving the viral trends — and none can be easily summed up as an immune deficit. (Brueck, 11/21)

Tensions are rising between parents and school nurses over children showing up to school with coughs, colds and symptoms of viral infections. ... Some parents are sending children to school sick or returning them too quickly after illness, school nurses say, with parents citing an inability to take more time off work and a broader weariness from dealing with so much illness during the Covid-19 pandemic. (Janin, 11/21)

Connecticut’s two children’s hospitals, already dealing with a deluge of respiratory syncytial virus cases among young kids, are bracing for flu cases to swell as the colder weather sets in and a surge in patients tests capacity. “We remain at full capacity, and we have been pretty much at full capacity for the last three months with rare exceptions,” said Dr. Juan Salazar, physician-in-chief at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. (Carlesso, 11/22)

A continued rise in respiratory illness, especially cases of RSV, has pushed Colorado’s pediatric hospital capacity to the brink. On Monday, state health officials said there were only two available pediatric intensive-care beds across the state. (Ingold, 11/22)

As Abhishesh Pokharel carried his 3-week-old daughter into the emergency department, her fingers and toes were turning blue. Other parts of her tiny body were yellow. Something was very wrong. The triage nurse at Greater Baltimore Medical Center knew it, too. She took one look at baby Ayra and gave her father an order: Run! Across the building he sped, his wife right behind him – to the pediatric emergency department. (Zdanowicz, 11/20)

Flu season is underway. RSV is putting record numbers of children in hospitals. And health professionals are gearing up for another Covid winter. With so many potential viruses in play, it would be helpful if Americans had a way to distinguish between different ailments at home. (Trang, 11/22)

While it’s impossible to eliminate the risk of catching COVID-19, the flu or RSV, health experts say there are several now-familiar steps that can be taken to boost protection. There’s currently no vaccine for RSV — or respiratory syncytial virus, which can cause serious symptoms and even death in young children and older people — that’s not the case for the flu or COVID-19. (Money and Lin II, 11/21)

Before attending a Thanksgiving gathering, the experts recommend that Americans consider taking a rapid test. Rapid at-home tests are also known as antigen tests. They look for antigens, or proteins from the coronavirus, which are different than polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests that look for genetic material from the virus. (Kekatos, 11/19)

Turkey, which is often the centerpiece of a Thanksgiving meal, can be contaminated with salmonella, campylobacter, clostridium perfringens and other germs, says Laura Ford, Ph.D., epidemiologist in the division of foodborne, waterborne and environmental diseases at the CDC. Most of these can be killed by cooking foods to a safe internal temperature, Ford says, but raw poultry and its juices can also cross-contaminate anything they touch. Raw eggs used in stuffings, casseroles and desserts can also be contaminated with germs like escherichia coli, Ford adds.  (Kee, 11/21)

With the Thanksgiving holiday almost here, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health experts have issued tips for safely preparing your turkey — and it doesn’t include washing it. (Weaver, 11/18)

Cooking stuffing inside a turkey can make it hard for the stuffing to reach safe temperatures. Cooking stuffing separately from the turkey in a casserole dish makes it easy to be sure it is thoroughly cooked. If you cook stuffing in a turkey, put the stuffing in the turkey just before cooking. With either cooking method, use a food thermometer to make sure the stuffing's center reaches 165F. (11/22)

It’s not the turkey that makes you sleepy — it’s the calories. Experts share how to get the most nutrition out of your meal. (Colino, 11/21)

According to experts, that means leaving certain foods off of your plate, including one seriously salty, carby option: boxed stuffing. To learn more about why boxed stuffing is one of the worst Thanksgiving side dishes you should avoid this year, we spoke to Lisa Richards, nutritionist and creator of The Candida Diet. (Geiger, 11/22)

Whether someone has been managing symptoms for years or is newly diagnosed, gastrointestinal conditions can require constant attention. And while holiday plans are disruptive for most — with late nights, indulgent food, extensive travel and intensive social time — the consequences are often higher for people with I.B.D. and I.B.S. Experts shared strategies to help navigate the season. (Latifi, 11/19)

One tip: Chew gum after you eat. Everything from a carb-triggered “food coma” to the rush of holiday activities can leave your mind foggy. To keep your mental energy high and strengthen your brain health as you relax after the meal, chew cinnamon gum. British scientists say doing so signals brain cells to boost energy production, sharpening thinking. And related, Rush University research suggests that flavor compounds in cinnamon reboot your brain, speeding up thinking. (Green, 11/21)

Could Paxlovid solve one of the pandemic’s biggest puzzles? A new study at Stanford University aims to find out. In the nation’s first medical trial of an antiviral strategy to treat long COVID, scientists are testing the drug to see if it helps ease the misery of fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, body aches, digestive symptoms and heart problems. (Krieger, 11/21)

A study using a special type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has revealed brain changes in COVID-19 patients up to 6 months after recovery from their infections, according to findings to be presented at next week's Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting in Chicago. ... The MRI results showed significant changes in the brain linked with fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, depression, headaches, and cognitive problems in the COVID-19 patients compared with controls. (11/21)

KHN: Treating Long Covid Is Rife With Guesswork 

Medical equipment is still strewn around the house of Rick Lucas, 62, nearly two years after he came home from the hospital. 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, Lucas has come a long way for someone who spent more than three months on a ventilator because of covid-19. “I’m almost normal now,” he said. “I was thrilled when I could walk to the mailbox. Now we’re walking all over town.” (Farmer, 11/22)

Although COVID-19 positivity rates are up, there have been fewer coinfections with other respiratory viruses than expected, according to recent findings from Helix, a lab that assists the CDC with variant tracking. Helix shared some of the latest observations from its COVID-19 and viral surveillance efforts in a Nov. 21 email, noting COVID-19 positivity rates are rising for the first time since July, with the highest growth in adults between 18 and 24. (Carbajal, 11/21)

A new subvariant has taken over as the predominant version of coronavirus circulating in Massachusetts, causing experts to worry about a potential rise of infections this winter, especially as people gather indoors for the holidays. But for most people who have been fully vaccinated, they say, it will likely pose more of a nuisance than serious health threat. (Cross, 11/21)

COVID-19 exacted a higher infection-related and excess all-cause death toll from the United States than from 20 peer countries throughout the pandemic but had less of an impact in the most-vaccinated states in the Delta and Omicron surges, suggests a study published late last week in JAMA. (Van Beusekom, 11/21)

The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced the launch of a global scientific effort to update the list of priority pathogens, a list used to guide investments and research, especially for vaccines and treatments. It said the process began on Nov 18 with a meeting of more than 300 scientists, who are examining evidence on 25 virus families and bacteria, as well as "Disease X," an unknown pathogen that could cause a serious international epidemic. The group will consider scientific criteria, as well as the potential socioeconomic, access, and equity impact. (11/21)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear California nursing home operator Glenhaven Healthcare's bid to avoid a lawsuit filed in state court over the COVID-19 death of a resident, turning away the company's effort to move the case into federal court to gain immunity from such litigation. The justices rebuffed Glenhaven Healthcare's appeal of a lower court's ruling allowing the family of deceased resident Ricardo Saldana to proceed with the lawsuit in a California state court. (Pierson, 11/21)

High-density lipoprotein, or HDL, cholesterol – often referred to as the “good” cholesterol – may not be as useful in predicting the risk of heart disease and protecting against it as previously thought, according to new researched funded by the National Institutes of Health. A study from the 1970s found that high levels of HDL cholesterol concentration were associated with low coronary heart disease risk, a link that has since been widely accepted and used in heart disease risk assessments. However, only White Americans were included in that study. (McPhillips, 11/21)

The new findings surprised the researchers, who originally designed their study to understand how cholesterol levels in Black and white middle-aged adults without heart disease affected their future risks. Previous research on "good" cholesterol and heart disease consisted of mostly white adults. “I did not expect high levels of HDL would not be protective,” said the study’s senior author, Nathalie Pamir, an associate professor of cardiovascular medicine in the Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine. “And I certainly did not expect low levels to have no predictive value for Black adults.” (Carroll, 11/21)

Though men remain the largest group of people diagnosed with HIV, Black women make up the majority of new HIV cases among women. Seven thousand women diagnosed with the virus in 2018, and Black women made up more than 4,000 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reports transgender women in a separate category. (Hassanein, 11/21)

An Indianapolis doctor who provided abortion drugs to a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio defended her actions before a judge Monday in an episode that drew national attention in the weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Dr. Caitlin Bernard testified during the second day of a court hearing on an attempt to block Indiana’s Republican attorney general from seeking patient medical records. (Davies, 11/22)

Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Caitlin Bernard testified in court Monday that she was the target of "threats and harassment" after Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita went on Fox News in July and said his office was looking into her conduct. "Multiple emails, calls to my personal cell phone, to my personal email, with threats and harassment," she said Monday. (Magdaleno, 11/22)

The North Dakota attorney general’s office said Monday that a judge did not use a “rational mental process” when he determined there was a “substantial probability” that a constitutional challenge to the state’s abortion ban would succeed. The state argued in a filing that South Central District Judge Bruce Romanick erred in blocking the ban from taking effect before a lawsuit by North Dakota’s lone abortion clinic is resolved. (Kolpack, 11/21)

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said Monday that he wants his lawsuit challenging the state’s 173-year-old abortion ban to move quickly through the courts, but it could be months before anything happens after defense attorneys signaled they would try to dismiss it next year. The case is almost certain to end up in the state Supreme Court. Conservative justices hold a one-vote majority on the court but Democrats are banking on a progressive candidate winning retiring Justice Patience Roggensack’s seat in April’s election, giving liberals the edge. Impending delays in the abortion lawsuit make it likely the case could land at the court after the new justice takes the bench in August. (Richmond, 11/21)

From birth control to family planning services and, soon, vasectomies, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is trying to adapt clinics that used to be known mostly for providing abortions to a post-Roe Wisconsin. (Shastri, 11/21)

Since opening in Glendale last year, Northshore Wellness Collective has outgrown its current space and is planning on moving its studio from Glendale to a new location at 159 E. Silver Spring Drive in Whitefish Bay this spring. The company specializes in all things pregnancy, postpartum and parenthood. Class sessions include prenatal yoga, fitness and labor classes, as well as classes on baby sleep and yoga for kids. (Groth, 11/21)

Abortion opponents are pushing the GOP to campaign more openly and forcefully against the procedure after the party suffered a string of losses in House, Senate, state legislative and ballot initiative fights. Less than six months after celebrating their decades-long goal of toppling Roe v. Wade and watching access to abortion nearly disappear in a quarter of the country, conservatives saw their hard-fought court victory galvanize abortion-rights supporters to outspend and outvote them in the midterms. (Ollstein and Messerly, 11/21)

In a country with one of the world’s most liberal abortion policies, groups funded by conservative American evangelicals are targeting women with a message familiar in the United States but novel to most Israelis: Abortion is “murder.” (Rubin, 11/18)

Health systems across the country have experienced a significant rise in denied claims over the past year, leading to more administrative work for providers, less cash flow for hospitals and, in some cases, postponed patient care. (Devereaux, 11/21)

A convergence of factors driving up health costs is threatening to make next year a very pricey one for big employers, forcing some to make difficult tradeoffs and eat some of the added expense. (Reed and Gonzalez, 11/21)

With a Dec. 7 deadline approaching, North Carolinians older than 65 are dealing with choices for 2023 between health insurance coverage under traditional Medicare or for one of 150 options on a growing list of privately run Medicare Advantage plans statewide. (Goldsmith, 11/22)

On Friday, oral health advocates across the globe got an early holiday gift from their longtime wish lists. They had been waiting their whole careers — for some STAT spoke with, up to nearly half a century — for oral health to be folded into conversations calling for health care access for all. The World Health Organization’s new Global Oral Health Status report took that first step. (Castillo, 11/21)

Intermountain Healthcare continues to make money during a difficult stretch for the hospital sector, recording $2.16 billion in net income for the first nine months of the year, according an unaudited financial report issued Thursday. (Hudson, 11/21)

Renton, Washington-based Providence closed all 27 of its Providence ExpressCare facilities on Nov. 17 after the Southern California retail clinics posted “unprecedented operating losses” amid labor shortages, inflation, supply chain disruption, lower-than-expected volumes and a more competitive retail clinic sector, the spokesperson said. (Kacik, 11/21)

As the world stares down the barrel of climate change, the health care system — which is responsible for about 9% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions — is finally starting to take action. Hospitals, in particular, are working to stem their impact, and have held up telehealth as a prime strategy to cut down on carbon, by eliminating millions of miles of travel to and from health care centers. (Palmer, 11/22)

Northern Essex Community College is participating in a national program to address the nursing shortage and make the profession more accessible to people from diverse backgrounds. (Laidler, 11/21)

Atrium Health employees seek to put their talents on display at work and on the stage. Every year, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based nonprofit health system invites its 70,000 staff members to participate in a talent show, “Atrium Health Has Talent.” Clinicians, administrative staff, leadership and other team members come together from across the 40-hospital system to showcase their skills. (Berryman, 11/22)

A Polk County jury has awarded a Des Moines man $27 million in damages after a local urgent care clinic failed to diagnose him with a serious meningitis infection that ultimately resulted in permanent brain damage. (Ramm, 11/21)

A subsequent official inquiry revealed that at least 220 other Irish women had also developed cervical cancer after receiving negative results for state-run Pap smears that, a later review showed, should have been flagged as likely positive. According to 221+, an advocacy group founded by Vicky Phelan and other affected women and their survivors, around 30 of these women have since died. (O'Loughlin, 11/17)

Northwest Biotherapeutics tried again, but its experimental treatment for brain cancer still falls short. (Feuerstein, 11/21)

Merck said Monday that it is acquiring Imago BioSciences for $1.35 billion, adding experimental drugs that target bone marrow diseases to its research pipeline. The all-cash deal values Imago at $36 per share, or a 107% premium from its closing price on Friday. (Feuerstein, 11/21)

Four years ago, Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre joined forces with a Florida neuroscientist to promote an experimental drug — a nasal spray designed to quickly treat brain injuries from a concussion. (Dilanian and Strickler 11/21)

Lawyers have filed at least nine lawsuits against L’Oreal USA Inc and other makers of hair straightener products since last month's release of a U.S. government study linking frequent use of the products to uterine cancer, according to court records. (Jones, 11/21)

“We’re definitely seeing disease in locations that we previously have not,” said Dr. George Thompson, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, Davis. “And that’s concerning, because if we’re recognizing those locations, where are the places it’s occurring that just have not been recognized quite yet?” (Yang and Bendix, 11/21)

Early one afternoon in 2000, Monique Shields, just a few weeks shy of her 30th birthday, left her busy day as an executive assistant at Starbucks’ corporate headquarters to go to her routine prenatal checkup. Following standard care practice, the nurse checked Shields’ blood pressure. It was sky-high. Her health care team sent her to the emergency department for monitoring. (Courage, 11/22)

Anthony Patterson got lucky — twice. His first stroke of good fortune came in 2011, when a fall led him to the emergency room of a local hospital. While he was there, doctors noticed his heart wasn’t beating as it should. A pacemaker was implanted, potentially saving his life. (Jordan Shamus, 11/21)

As the days grow colder and daylight becomes more scarce, some Americans are oversleeping, overeating, experiencing weight gain and social withdrawal or hibernating. The symptoms are part of a condition called seasonal affective disorder, also known as SAD or seasonal depression. (Martin, 11/22)

Audrey Pirri, 16, had been terrified of vomiting since she was a toddler. She worried every time she shared a meal with family or friends, restricting herself to “safe” foods like pretzels and salad that wouldn’t upset her stomach, if she ate at all. She was afraid to ride in the car with her brother, who often got carsick. She fretted for hours about an upcoming visit to a carnival or stadium — anywhere with lots of people and their germs. But on a Tuesday evening in August, in her first intensive session of a treatment called exposure therapy, Audrey was determined to confront one of the most potent triggers of her fear: a set of rainbow polka dot sheets. (Hughes, 11/21)

Did too much water kill Bruce Lee, the martial-arts legend known for saying, “Be water, my friend”? That’s the notion put forth in a new research paper by a group of kidney specialists from Spain. (D'Zurilla, 11/21)

Deepak Palakshappa became a pediatrician to give poor kids access to good medical care. Still, back in his residency days, the now-associate professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem was shocked to discover that a patient caring for two young grandchildren was food insecure. “Our clinic had set up one of those food drive boxes, and near the end of a visit, she asked if she could have any of the cans because she didn’t have food for the holidays,” he recalls. Thirteen years later, Palakshappa’s clinic team now asks two simple questions of every patient to ascertain whether they’ll run out of food in a given month. (Nargi, 11/20)

When the names of those shot to death in a Colorado Springs LGBTQ bar were read at a police news conference Monday, one thing stood out from the procedure that has become routine in a nation plagued by mass shootings: The police chief stated the pronouns of the deceased. “Kelly Loving. Kelly’s pronouns are she/her. Daniel Aston. Daniel’s pronouns are he/him. Derrick Rump. Derrick’s pronouns are he/him,” and so on, went Chief Adrian Vasquez. It was a small gesture, but an important one, LGBTQ advocates said. (Pietsch, 11/22)

LGBTQ+ advocates and lawmakers in Colorado feel numbness, anger, and sorrow in the aftermath of the Colorado Springs shooting on Saturday that killed five people and injured at least 18 others at Club Q — an LGBTQ+ bar that has stood as a community space for two decades. The timing of the killings just before the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) brought an even greater sense of devastation and urgency to LGBTQ+ people in the community and national advocates. (Rummler, 11/21)

Several Colorado lawmakers are asking why the state’s red-flag law wasn’t used to seize weapons from the alleged gunman in the deadly shooting at an LGBT nightclub in Colorado Springs after a prior arrest for violent threats last year. (Frosch, Elinson and Caldwell, 11/21)

Dozens of House Democrats are calling on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to counter online threats of violence directed against several children’s hospitals across the country. In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Democrats asked the DOJ to outline the steps the agency is taking to counter anti-transgender threats of violence and to provide further guidance to health care providers on how to protect their staff and patients from such threats. (Weixel, 11/21)

A 21-year old transgender woman and her father have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense in federal district court in Maine. According to court documents, the woman, referred to as Jane Doe, and her father, a military veteran referred to as John Doe, live in Sagadahoc County. (Wight, 11/21)

A vending machine dispensing free kits aimed at reducing the risk of HIV and hepatitis C and at treating opioid overdose was unveiled Monday at the headquarters of the Southern Nevada Health District. (Hynes, 11/21)

Vending machines stocked with overdose-reversing nasal spray are part of the latest attempt to diminish a record tide of drug deaths. ... “If we hadn’t had that vending machine, I might not have had my brother alive today,” said LuDene LoyaltyGroves, who works at a homeless shelter in Moses Lake, Wash. People staying with her brother in a nearby encampment retrieved Narcan from a vending machine at the shelter and used it to revive him repeatedly, she said. (Wernau and Maher, 11/21)

KHN: Schools, Sheriffs, And Syringes: State Plans Vary For Spending $26B In Opioid Settlement Funds 

With more than 200 Americans still dying of drug overdoses each day, states are beginning the high-stakes task of deciding how to spend billions of dollars in settlement funds from opioid manufacturers and distributors. Their decisions will have real-world implications for families and communities across the country that have borne the brunt of the opioid crisis. Will that massive tranche of money be used to help the people who suffered the most and for programs shown to be effective in curbing the epidemic? Or will elected officials use the money for politically infused projects that will do little to offer restitution or help those harmed? (Pattani, 11/22)

New York issued its first 36 cannabis dispensary licenses on Monday, taking a monumental step in establishing a legal — and lucrative — marketplace for recreational marijuana. (Calvan, 11/21)

The University of Florida College of Medicine incorporates aspects of critical race theory into its admissions and educational programs, according to a new report obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital. (Hauf, 11/22)

One of the country’s largest private prison companies has defrauded Texas by collecting millions of dollars for in-prison therapeutic programming it hasn’t provided during the pandemic, a new complaint filed with the state auditor claims. (McCullough, 11/22)

KHN: California Aims To Maximize Health Insurance Subsidies For Workers During Labor Disputes 

This spring, Chevron workers testified that the company revoked health coverage for hundreds of members of the United Steelworkers Local 5 at the Richmond, California, refinery during a strike that ultimately lasted two months. Thousands of nurses at Stanford Health Care were told in April they would lose their health insurance if they did not return to work during their weeklong strike. More than 300 workers at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City received a similar message after going on strike in mid-July as contract negotiations stalled. (Sciacca, 11/22)

Burnout among American physicians is at an all-time high, according to a national study published in September by the Mayo Clinic. America's doctors are struggling to thrive in a broken health care system that has become more and more defined by red tape and bureaucracy. (Tamir Aldad, 11/21)

After nearly 20 years as an emergency room doctor, I walked away from the profession I once loved. I’m not the only one. According to a new report from the data analytics company Definitive Healthcare, 117,000 physicians left medicine in 2021. (Molly Phelps, 11/19)

A viral hurricane is making landfall on health care systems battered by three pandemic years. With the official start of winter still weeks away, pediatric hospitals are facing crushing caseloads of children sick with RSV and other viral illnesses. (Anne N. Sosin, Lakshmi Ganapathi and Martha Lincoln, 11/22)

The “triple threat” is real. Thanks to the combined impact of Covid-19, the flu and RSV among children, hospitals are pitching tents outside their emergency rooms. (11/21)

It’s an unacceptable fact that Black women are more than three times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes in America than white women. That holds true regardless of education level, socioeconomic status, age, geography and type of healthcare coverage. (Kim Keck, 11/22)

As Dallas residents leave the pandemic behind, there is growing evidence that diabetes has increased in North Texas, especially among Black and Hispanic residents. Parkland Hospital is raising the alarm. (11/22)

In a world filled with so much darkness, Naomi was a beaming light. She was empathetic, kind and full of life and joy. She had so much life ahead of her before that fateful day when she was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer and given six months to a year to live. (Beatrice Louissaint, 11/21)

We can win the war against breast cancer. I’ve learned this firsthand. This is my story of how I came to know we can win this war − not only for myself but for all women. (Michele Young, 11/21)