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Additional testing of retail dairy products from across the country has turned up no signs of live bird flu virus, strengthening the consensus that pasteurization is protecting consumers from the threat, federal health and agriculture officials said at a news briefing on Wednesday. But the scope of the bird flu outbreak in cattle remains unclear, as dairy herds are not routinely tested for the infection, scientists and other experts have noted. Just one human infection, which was mild, has been reported, in a dairy worker in Texas who had direct contact with sick cows. Barely two dozen people have been tested for bird flu, federal officials said at the briefing. There have been no unusual increases in flu cases around the country, even in areas with infected cows, they added.

Locations: Texas

☆ Biden Administration Restores Health Protections for Gay and Transgender People
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Noah Weiland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration announced expansive new protections on Friday for gay and transgender medical patients, prohibiting federally funded health providers and insurers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The new rule reverses a policy instituted by the Trump administration and helps to fulfill part of President Biden’s vow to restore civil rights protections for L.G.B.T.Q. people that were eliminated by his predecessor. The rule overhauls federal policy in an area that has become a political flashpoint, with more than 20 Republican-led states banning or restricting gender-affirming care for minors in recent years, and it is likely to draw legal challenges. Even the history of the rule illustrates the political sensitivities at play: It has now taken three different forms under three successive presidents.

Persons: Trump, Biden’s, “, ” Xavier Becerra Organizations: Biden, Republican

☆ Federal Officials Find No Live Bird Flu Virus in Initial Milk Tests
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Noah Weiland | Benjamin Mueller | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Federal regulators on Friday said that they had not yet discovered live bird flu virus in the first batch of retail milk samples they tested, a reassuring indication that the milk on store shelves remains safe despite an outbreak of the virus among diary cows. In an online update, the Food and Drug Administration said an initial set of tests looking for live virus, not just genetic fragments, suggested that the pasteurization process was effectively neutralizing the pathogen. “These results reaffirm our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the F.D.A. wrote in the update, adding that the testing efforts were ongoing. Officials also tested infant and toddler formula, which incorporate powdered dairy, and did not find the virus, the agency wrote.

Organizations: Food and Drug Administration, Officials

☆ Biden Delays Ban on Menthol Cigarettes
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Christina Jewett | Noah Weiland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Biden administration said on Friday that it was delaying a decision on whether to ban menthol cigarettes as federal officials take more time to consider the move. The White House has faced considerable opposition from the big tobacco companies that could lose billions of dollars from the move. But the proposal has also posed risks for President Biden in an election year because of his weakening support among Black voters, some of whom view it as heavy-handed. “This rule has garnered historic attention, and the public comment period has yielded an immense amount of feedback, including from various elements of the civil rights and criminal justice movement,” Xavier Becerra, the health and human services secretary, said in a statement. “It’s clear that there are still more conversations to have, and that will take significantly more time.”

Persons: Biden, ” Xavier Becerra, ” Organizations: Black

☆ One in Five Milk Samples Nationwide Shows Genetic Traces of Bird Flu
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Emily Anthes | Noah Weiland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Federal regulators have discovered fragments of bird flu virus in roughly 20 percent of retail milk samples tested in a nationally representative study, the Food and Drug Administration said in an online update on Thursday. Samples from parts of the country that are known to have dairy herds infected with the virus were more likely to test positive, the agency said. Regulators said that there is no evidence that this milk poses a danger to consumers or that live virus is present in the milk on store shelves, an assessment public health experts have agreed with. But finding traces of the virus in such a high share of samples from around the country is the strongest signal yet that the bird flu outbreak in dairy cows is more extensive than the official tally of 33 infected herds across eight states. “It suggests that there is a whole lot of this virus out there,” said Richard Webby, a virologist and influenza expert at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Persons: ”, Richard Webby, Jude Children’s Organizations: Food and Drug Administration, Regulators, St, Jude Children’s Research

The Biden administration on Wednesday said that it would begin requiring dairy cows moving across state lines to be tested for bird flu, which has been spreading in herds for months. The new policy is part of a growing effort to stamp out the spread of a virus that federal health officials have sought to reassure Americans poses little risk to people so far. The new order, issued by the Department of Agriculture, says that lactating cows must test negative for influenza A viruses, a class that includes bird flu, before they are transported. The owners of herds with positive tests will need to provide data on the movements of the cattle to help investigators trace the disease. Since a highly contagious form of bird flu was detected in the United States in 2022, federal officials have sought to reassure Americans that the threat to the public remained low, even as the virus infected a growing number of mammals.

Persons: Biden, ” Mike Watson Organizations: Department of Agriculture, of Agriculture Locations: United States

Federal regulators on Tuesday said that samples of pasteurized milk from around the country had tested positive for inactive remnants of the bird flu virus that has been infecting dairy cows. The viral fragments do not pose a threat to consumers, officials said. “To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement. Over the last month, a bird flu virus known as H5N1 has been detected in more than 30 dairy herds in eight states. The virus is also known to have infected one farmworker, whose only symptom was pink eye.

Persons: “ Organizations: and Drug Administration, Agriculture Department

☆ Heat-Related E.R. Visits Rose in 2023, C.D.C. Study Finds
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Noah Weiland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

What the Numbers Say: People in the South were especially affected by serious heat illness. The researchers used data on emergency room visits from an electronic surveillance program used by states and the federal government to detect the spread of diseases. They compiled the number of heat-related emergency room visits in different regions of the country and compared them to data from the previous five years. Nearly 120,000 heat-related emergency room visits were recorded in the surveillance program last year, with more than 90 percent of them occurring between May and September, the researchers found. Heat illness often occurs gradually over the course of hours, and it can cause major damage to the body’s organs.

Locations: Arkansas , Louisiana, New Mexico , Oklahoma, Texas

☆ As Medicaid Shrinks, Clinics for the Poor Are Trying to Survive
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Noah Weiland | Desiree Rios | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Appointment cancellations and financial distress have become a constant at Bethesda Pediatrics, a nonprofit medical clinic in East Texas that is heavily dependent on Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor. On a recent Monday, the mother of a toddler who had a primary care appointment broke down in tears after learning the child had just lost Medicaid coverage, wondering how she could pay the bill. Another mother told Dr. Danny Price, the clinic’s lead pediatrician, that she was afraid to get her child a flu shot because of the $8 fee she would have to pay now that the child had been dropped from Medicaid. A child with depression did not show up, most likely, Dr. Price presumed, because of having lost Medicaid coverage. The loss of coverage has not only affected families, but is also threatening the financial stability of vital components of the American safety net.

Persons: Danny Price, Price, ”, Kyu Rhee Organizations: Bethesda Pediatrics, Medicaid, National Association of Community Health Centers Locations: East Texas, Tyler , Texas, United States

☆ Under Bernie Sanders’s Glare, Pharmaceutical Chiefs Will Testify on Drug Prices
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Noah Weiland | Rebecca Robbins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The chief executives of three major pharmaceutical companies are set to appear in front of the Senate health committee on Thursday to defend how much they charge for drugs in the United States, drawing them further into a confrontation with lawmakers and the Biden administration over the cost of some of the most widely used prescription medications. The three executives scheduled to testify — Joaquin Duato of Johnson & Johnson, Robert M. Davis of Merck and Christopher Boerner of Bristol Myers Squibb — are expected to clash with the health committee’s chairman, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who has made reining in drug prices a signature cause of his late-career years in Congress. Mr. Sanders plans to focus the hearing on why drug prices are higher in the United States than in other wealthy countries. His staff has singled out several widely used drugs, including Eliquis, a blood thinner made by Bristol Myers Squibb, and Januvia, a diabetes drug from Merck, that can be bought for much less in Canada and Europe than in the United States.

Persons: Biden, — Joaquin Duato, Johnson, Robert M, Davis, Christopher Boerner, Bernie Sanders of, Sanders Organizations: Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb Locations: United States, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Canada, Europe

☆ U.S. Makes Initial Offers in Medicare Drug Price Negotiations
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Noah Weiland | More About Noah Weiland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Why It Matters: The price offers kick off negotiations. The initial round of price offers is a key step in the negotiation process. The price negotiation program was created by the Inflation Reduction Act, the climate, tax and health care package that President Biden signed into law in 2022. Additional medications will be chosen for price negotiations in the coming years. A federal judge in Delaware heard arguments on Wednesday in a case brought by AstraZeneca, the maker of a diabetes drug that was selected for price negotiations.

Persons: ”, Andrew W, Mulcahy, Biden, Mr, drugmakers Organizations: Biden, RAND Corporation, Medicare, U.S . Chamber, Commerce, AstraZeneca Locations: Delaware

☆ It’s Boom Times for Obamacare. Will They Last?
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Noah Weiland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Carley Calvi came to the second floor of a public library in suburban Milwaukee one morning this month without health insurance to cover the vertigo medication she needed. Worse, she said, was not having a doctor she trusted. “I want somebody to value me as the person I am,” said Ms. Calvi, a 35-year-old woodworker. With roughly 110 options and the help of a health insurance navigator, she selected a plan with a steeply discounted $221 monthly premium, placing her among the 21.3 million people who have signed up for coverage on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces for 2024. Driving the surge in enrollment has been the continuation of more generous federal subsidies that date to the coronavirus pandemic.

Persons: Carley Calvi, “, ”, Biden Locations: Milwaukee, Calvi

☆ Federal Scientists Recommend Easing Restrictions on Marijuana
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-12 | by ( Christina Jewett | Noah Weiland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Marijuana is neither as risky nor as prone to abuse as other tightly controlled substances and has potential medical benefits, and therefore should be removed from the nation’s most restrictive category of drugs, federal scientists have concluded. The records shed light for the first time on the thinking of federal health officials who are pondering a momentous change. The agencies involved have not publicly commented on their debates over what amounts to a reconsideration of marijuana at the federal level. Since 1970, marijuana has been considered a so-called Schedule I drug, a category that also includes heroin. Schedule I drugs have no medical use and a high potential for abuse, and they carry severe criminal penalties under federal trafficking laws.

Persons: Matthew Zorn Organizations: Health, Human Services Locations: Texas

☆ At Least 2 Million Children Have Lost Medicaid Insurance This Year
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Noah Weiland | More About Noah Weiland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At least two million low-income children have lost health insurance since the end of a federal policy that guaranteed coverage through Medicaid earlier in the Covid-19 pandemic, according to new analyses by researchers at the Georgetown Center for Children and Families and KFF, a health policy research organization. The figures, which are likely a significant undercount, represent one of the fastest and most dramatic ruptures in the American safety net since Medicaid went into law in 1965, experts say. Many of the children were qualified for federal assistance but lost it because of bureaucratic mistakes, such as missing paperwork or errors by state officials. It is not clear how many of these children have found new coverage in the more than seven months since the Medicaid rolls began shrinking, but at least one million are likely to still be uninsured, said Joan Alker, the executive director of the Georgetown center and a research professor at the university’s McCourt School of Public Policy. The trend is accelerating: In the coming weeks, she said, new state numbers will probably show that three million children have lost coverage.

Persons: Joan Alker Organizations: Georgetown Center for Children, university’s, School of Public Policy Locations: Georgetown

☆ Why Health Care Workers Are Burning Out
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Noah Weiland | More About Noah Weiland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Federal researchers tracked self-reported mental health symptoms among more than a thousand adult workers in 2018 and 2022, including 226 health care workers in 2018 and 325 in 2022. Compared with other groups surveyed, health care workers reported a substantial jump in poor mental health days in the month prior, from 3.3 in 2018 to 4.5 in 2022. Less than 30 percent of health workers last year described themselves as very happy, a decline from 2018. And the percentage of health care workers reporting harassment on the job more than doubled, compared with the rate in 2018. “Whatever is happening out in the world walks into our health care facilities.”Nearly half of health care workers surveyed said they were somewhat or very likely to look for new work, the researchers found — an ominous sign for providers already struggling to retain staff.

Persons: ”, Rumay Alexander, Houry, Amy Locke, Locke, “, Katie Carroll, Scott Lockard Organizations: “, University of North, Chapel, American Nurses Association, University of Utah Health, Health Department Locations: University of North Carolina, New Brunswick, N.J, Local, Kentucky

As the atmosphere warms, many forests and other natural ecosystems are becoming drier and more prone to catching on fire. “You don’t have to cook the books.”Together, the two studies show how wildfires are a growing health threat. Wildfire smoke can contain a variety of pollutants, including fine particulate matter, or PM 2.5, a type of air pollution made up of very small particles that can invade the lungs and bloodstream. Thanks to the Clean Air Act, air pollution in the United States has generally improved since the 1970s. But levels of PM 2.5, which are routinely tracked by the Environmental Protection Agency and had been declining, took a marked turn back up around 2016.

Persons: Childs, “ It’s, something’s, ”, Marshall Burke Organizations: Stanford University, Act, Environmental Protection Agency Locations: Canada, United States

☆ Many Children May Have Lost Medicaid Coverage Because of State Errors
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Noah Weiland | More About Noah Weiland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Tsai told reporters in a press briefing Wednesday that the problem was “a very specific systems glitch that we think has tremendous implications for eligible kids and families maintaining coverage.”Many states are conducting what are known as “ex parte” renewals, or automatic checks that rely on databases, such as state wage records, to determine whether people are still eligible for Medicaid coverage. States are required to vet the eligibility of recipients individually. Children may have been disproportionately punished by this practice, officials said on Wednesday. The administration ordered states that identify this error to fix their eligibility systems, to pause removals and to reinstate those who had been affected by the mistakes. The letter amounted to one of the most confrontational actions that federal officials have taken since the start of the unwinding, which has led to over 5.5 million people losing coverage, according to state data analyzed by KFF, a health policy research organization.

Persons: Tsai, KFF

Narcan, the first opioid overdose reversal medication approved for over-the-counter purchase, is being shipped to drugstore and grocery chains nationwide, its manufacturer said Wednesday. Big-box outlets like Walgreens, CVS, Walmart and Rite Aid said they expected Narcan to be available online and on many store shelves early next week. There were more than 100,000 opioid overdose fatalities in each of the last two years in the United States. Narcan is already a staple for emergency personnel and street outreach teams. Now scientists and health officials are hoping Narcan will eventually become commonplace in public libraries, subways, dorms, corner delis and street vending machines.

Persons: Narcan Organizations: CVS, Walmart, Rite Aid Locations: United States

☆ Addiction Treatment Eludes More Than Half of Americans in Need
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Noah Weiland | More About Noah Weiland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Why It Matters: Opioid addiction affects every part of American society. Rural and white Americans were the likeliest to report personal or family opioid addiction, but significant percentages of Black, Hispanic, urban and suburban families did, as well. Overdose fatality rates among Black Americans have climbed substantially in recent years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found in a study last year. A third of Americans fear that someone in their family will die of an opioid overdose, researchers discovered. Methadone, another opioid addiction medication that alleviates cravings, is heavily regulated and often difficult for drug users to access and use continuously, prompting repeated calls from addiction physicians and public health experts for easing restrictions.

Persons: KFF, “, —, ”, naloxone, David Fiellin, Biden Organizations: Centers for Disease Control, Yale School of Medicine, AIDS Locations: ”, Georgia, South Carolina

☆ After End of Pandemic Coverage Guarantee, Texas Is Epicenter of Medicaid Losses
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-13 | by ( Noah Weiland | More About Noah Weiland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ms. Vasquez said that she needed to stay healthy while breastfeeding and be able to see a doctor if she falls ill. “When you are taking care of someone else, it’s very different,” she said of needing health insurance as a new parent. Enrollment in Medicaid, a joint federal-state health insurance program for low-income people, soared to record levels while the pandemic-era policy was in place, and the nation’s uninsured rate fell to a record low early this year. But since the so-called unwinding began, states have reported dropping more than 4.5 million people from Medicaid, according to KFF. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that more than 15 million people will be dropped from Medicaid over a year and a half and that more than six million of them will end up uninsured. Under the health law, states can expand their Medicaid programs to cover adults who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $41,000 for a family of four.

Persons: Vasquez, ”, unwinding Organizations: Congressional, Republicans Locations: Texas

In blistering 100-degree heat one recent afternoon at Valley State Prison in California’s Central Valley, inmates crowded around small windows in a prison yard to pick up their daily doses of buprenorphine, an opioid addiction medication. At one window, Quennie Uy, a nurse, scanned inmate identification cards, then retrieved strips of the medication, slipping them through a sliding panel below the window. The daily ritual is part of a sprawling health experiment in California that aims to unwind the often lasting damage of opioid use before, during and after incarceration. The state’s efforts also reflect the beginnings of a potential transformation in the nation’s approach to treating addiction in a part of American society that is often neglected. “There’s this better understanding that if we’re going to treat the opioid overdose crisis, one of the high-target populations to treat is people in jails and prisons.”

Persons: ”, Justin Berk Organizations: Brown University, Rhode Island’s Department of Corrections, “ Locations: California’s Central Valley, California

The vaccine, the company said, may not have gone through advanced enough testing to qualify for the new pot of U.S. funding. Federal officials, some of whom have become concerned about the leadership of the next-generation vaccine program, acknowledged that key questions remain about how the program will operate and how quickly it can deliver. Although some Biden administration officials hope to roll out new vaccine technology by fall 2024, many scientists believe doses are at least several years away. “There’s not the money, there’s not the infrastructure, there’s not the support,” John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, said of the push for improved vaccines. “So I’m not expecting any next-generation major things in the near future.”

Persons: “ There’s, there’s, ” John Moore, I’m, ” Organizations: Biden, Weill Cornell Medicine Locations: Pennsylvania, India

☆ As Covid Emergency Ends, U.S. Response Shifts to ‘Peacetime’ Mode
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Sheryl Gay Stolberg | Noah Weiland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On Thursday, three years and 100 days after the Trump administration declared the coronavirus a public health emergency, the Biden administration will allow the emergency declaration to expire, ushering in a new era when the government will treat Covid-19 like any other respiratory ailment. If the coronavirus pandemic was a war, the United States is about to officially enter peacetime. State health officials, tasked with tracking the coronavirus, are burned out, their departments understaffed. President Biden’s coronavirus response team will soon disband. But the officials say they are operating on a tight budget; Congress has refused to give the administration any new money for the pandemic response.

☆ In Jails and Prisons, the White House Sees a Chance to Curtail Opioid Overdoses
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Noah Weiland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration this week accelerated efforts to fund opioid addiction treatment in jails and prisons, a core part of its drug policy agenda, calling on states to adopt a novel Medicaid program that will cover health care for incarcerated people. Under new guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, states can ask the federal government to allow Medicaid to cover addiction treatment for up to 90 days ahead of someone’s release. Public health experts say that providing treatment during that critical period could help people survive the often harsh conditions of jails and prisons, then more easily transition back to the community. “That’s where most people are, and that’s where you’re going to get the most benefit,” said Dr. Rahul Gupta, the director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, referring to the high concentration of incarcerated Americans with opioid use disorder. Neglecting to treat addiction in jails and prisons, he added, comes at the “highest cost to society, to taxpayers.”

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