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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

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

☆ 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

☆ 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

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

☆ 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

☆ 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

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