First Edition: February 20, 2019

Kaiser Health News: ‘These Women’s Lives Mattered’: Nurse Builds Database Of Women Murdered By Men
In February 2017, a school nurse in this Dallas suburb began counting women murdered by men. Seated at her desk, beside shelves of cookbooks, novels and books on violence against women, Dawn Wilcox, 54, scours the internet for news stories of women killed by men in the U.S. For dozens of hours each week, she digs through online news reports and obituaries to tell the stories of women killed by lovers, strangers, fathers, sons and stepbrothers, neighbors and tenants. (Schreyer, 2/20)

California Healthline: The Measles Success Story In California Is Showing Signs Of Fading
A rash of recent measles outbreaks in New York, Texas and Washington state shines a light on California’s largely successful effort in recent years to suppress the disease — though some of the shine might be fading. A serious measles outbreak that started at Disneyland in December 2014 and carried over into 2015 contributed to a steep increase in vaccination rates among California kindergartners over the following three years. But the gains stopped last year, according to the most recent available data. (Rowan, 2/19)

The New York Times: On Health Care, 2020 Democrats Find Their First Real Fault Lines
The debate unfolded over a period of days, on multiple televised stages in different states. There were no direct clashes between the candidates, no traces of personal animus — but a debate it was, the first vivid disputation over policy in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. The subject, perhaps predictably, was health care. At issue was just how drastically to transform the American system, and how comprehensive the role of government should be. (Burns, 2/20)

The Washington Post: Caught Between Trump And The Left, Democratic Candidates Seek To Avoid The Socialism Squeeze
Democratic presidential hopeful Cory Booker on Sunday delivered what he called the “hard truth” about Medicare-for-all: It will be difficult to pass, so the party should also ready more incremental changes. His rival Sen. Kamala D. Harris the next day championed the Green New Deal, a sweeping climate proposal — before adding: “Some of it we’ll achieve, some of it we won’t.” (Sullivan and Linskey, 2/19)

The Hill: Harris: ‘Medicare For All’ Is Not Socialism
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) on Tuesday defended her support for “Medicare for all,” saying it is not a socialist idea. “No, no. It’s about providing health care to all people,” Harris said in an interview with NBC News’s Kasie Hunt after being asked if what she supported was socialism. Harris, a progressive Democratic presidential candidate who has embraced Medicare for all, told NBC that rising costs are making health care unaffordable. (Weixel, 2/19)

The New York Times: The Difference Between A ‘Public Option’ And ‘Medicare For All’? Let’s Define Our Terms
Democrats, the many running for president as well as energized members of Congress, are talking big about health care again. Among other things, that means brace yourself for some jargon. Here’s your neighborhood health care nerd to help define some terms. Various proposals are floating around, each of which would change the health care system in distinct ways. Some, like one from Senator Bernie Sanders, would do away with all private health insurance. Some would make small expansions in existing public programs. Some would try to cover all Americans through a mix of different insurance types. (Sanger-Katz, 2/19)

The Associated Press: Sen. Bernie Sanders Says He’s Running For President In 2020
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said Tuesday that he will seek the Democratic presidential nomination again, a decision that will test whether he can still generate the progressive energy that fueled his insurgent 2016 campaign. … An enthusiastic progressive who embraces proposals such as “Medicare-for-all” and free college tuition, Sanders stunned the Democratic establishment in 2016 with his spirited challenge to Hillary Clinton. While she ultimately became the party’s nominee, his campaign helped lay the groundwork for the leftward lurch that has dominated Democratic politics in the Trump era. (Summers, 2/19)

The New York Times: Bernie Sanders On The Issues: Where He Stands And What Could Derail Him
Mr. Sanders, now in his third term representing Vermont in the Senate, drafted a Medicare-for-all bill in 2017 that has since been endorsed by several other Democratic senators, including the presidential candidates Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. “Medicare for all” has become a rallying cry for progressive Democrats, though it means different things to different people, and exactly which version candidates embrace has become something of an early policy test. (Stevens, 2/19)

Politico: Sanders Launches Second Bid For Presidency
Sanders’ team is making the bet that his long-held beliefs on progressive issues will set him apart. “People in many ways are rightfully cynical about politics,” Weaver said. “And the fact that somebody has been consistent, including when it was not easy and including when it was perceived by many in the establishment to be politically disadvantageous to have stood for those issues, I think signals to voters that one is truly committed to those issues and that the person will aggressively pursue those policies and not trade them away when it’s hard.” (Otterbein, 2/19)

ProPublica: Behind the Scenes, Health Insurers Use Cash and Gifts to Sway Which Benefits Employers Choose
The pitches to the health insurance brokers are tantalizing. “Set sail for Bermuda,” says insurance giant Cigna, offering top-selling brokers five days at one of the island’s luxury resorts. Health Net of California’s pitch is not subtle: A smiling woman in a business suit rides a giant $ 100 bill like it’s a surfboard. “Sell more, enroll more, get paid more!” In some cases, its ad says, a broker can “power up” the bonus to $ 150,000 per employer group. (Allen, 2/20)

Politico: From Moonshot To HIV Eradication
Moonshots have to start on earth. Extensive groundwork went into President Barack Obama’s cancer moonshot, announced during his final State of the Union. And the ambitious project is still blazing ahead, albeit in a different form than it might have under a Democratic administration, with broad bipartisan and science community support. (Owermohle, 2/19)

NPR: Trump’s Goal To Stop HIV Is A Challenge In Rural Oklahoma
One of the goals President Trump announced in his State of the Union address was to stop the spread of HIV in the U.S. within 10 years. In addition to sending extra money to 48 mainly urban counties, Washington, D.C., and San Juan, Puerto Rico, Trump’s plan targets seven states where rural transmission of HIV is especially high. Health officials and doctors treating patients with HIV in those states say any extra funding would be welcome. But they say that strategies that work in progressive cities like Seattle won’t necessarily work in rural areas of Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina. (Fortier, 2/19)

The Washington Post: FDA, Drug Companies, Doctors Mishandled Use Of Powerful Fentanyl Painkiller
The Food and Drug Administration, drug companies and doctors mishandled distribution of a powerful fentanyl painkiller, allowing widespread prescribing to ineligible patients despite special measures designed to safeguard its use, according to a report released Tuesday. The unusual paper in the medical journal JAMA relies on nearly 5,000 pages of documents that researchers obtained from the government via the Freedom of Information Act, rather than a more typical controlled scientific study. (Bernstein, 2/19)

The Washington Post: Opioid Crisis: Oklahoma Could Provide Test Of Who Will Pay For The Opioid Epidemic, And How Much
Big pharma is facing a major test in a small courthouse 20 miles south of here: the first trial at which a jury could decide whether drug companies bear responsibility for the nation’s opioid crisis. Thousands of cities, counties, Native American tribes and others have filed lawsuits up and down the opioid supply chain, alleging various claims of culpability for the crisis that began with widespread abuse of powerful painkillers. (Bernstein and Zezima, 2/19)

Reuters: U.S. Top Court Rejects Bid To Block Indivior Opioid Drug Copycat
The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to Indivior Plc on Tuesday, clearing the way for a copycat version of the British pharmaceutical firm’s lucrative opioid addiction treatment Suboxone Film in a victory for India-based generic drug maker Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories. Chief Justice John Roberts, in a brief order, denied Indivior’s request to put on hold a lower court’s ruling that had opened the door to cheaper generic versions of Suboxone while the company prepares an appeal to the high court. (Chung, 2/19)

CNN: ‘Alarming’ Number Of People Received Restricted Fentanyl, Study Says
An “alarming” number of US patients received a highly potent form of opioid that is 100 times more powerful than morphine and that they never should have been prescribed, according to a new study. The research, published Tuesday in JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, found that the US Food and Drug Administration and opioid manufacturers failed at multiple levels to adequately monitor the restricted use of these types of fentanyl as part of a federal program — and that few substantive changes were made even after officials discovered problems. (Drash, 2/19)

The New York Times: Legalize Pot? Amid Opioid Crisis, Some New Hampshire Leaders Say No Way
The push to legalize recreational marijuana is sweeping the Northeast: Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine have done it, and the governors of Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey say they want their states to do it, too. But in New Hampshire, Gov. Chris Sununu and some other state leaders are opposed. The problem, they say, is not just about pot. (Taylor, 2/20)

The Washington Post: Opioid Use Rising In Maryland, But Fatal Car Crashes Involving Drivers With The Drug In Their Systems Have Not Increased
While Maryland is facing a growing epidemic of opioid addiction, there has not been a corresponding increase in traffic fatalities involving drivers who have the drug in their systems, a new report examining data from the state medical examiner found. “The fact that opioid crashes in Maryland over the last 10 years have been more or less steady was a surprise,” said Johnathon P. Ehsani,one of the report’s authors. “That is striking, because Maryland is one of those states that has been quite severely affected by the overall opioid epidemic.” (Halsey, 2/19)

The Washington Post: Border Crisis: Surge Of Families Crossing Shifts Focus To Medical, Humanitarian Needs
This cactus forest on the U.S.-Mexico border was quiet one recent day. No mass crossings of migrant families. No sprinters. Just two men caught sneaking into the Arizona desert. Then U.S. Border Patrol Agent Daniel Hernandez spotted a youth alone under a juniper tree, dressed as if he were headed to church. When the agent approached, the teen quickly surrendered. (Sacchetti, 2/19)

The Associated Press: Lawmakers Tour Florida Migrant Teen Camp, Want Policy Shift
Congressional Democrats from Florida and Texas on Tuesday toured a migrant camp, where they said children are being held for too long in a place that has a “prison-like” feeling. The lawmakers held a news conference after visiting a facility in Homestead, Florida. They pledged to work for children who cross the U.S.-Mexico border to reunite with their families already in the U.S. The Democrats say those who cross with siblings, aunts or uncles should remain together. (2/19)

The Associated Press: Lawmakers Seek Probe Of ICE Force-Feeding Of Immigrants
Nearly 50 Democratic lawmakers called for a watchdog investigation of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday after the agency confirmed it had been force-feeding immigrant detainees on a hunger strike. Reporting by The Associated Press revealed late last month that nine Indian men who were refusing food at a Texas detention facility were being force-fed through nasal tubes against their will. (2/19)

The Hill: High Stakes As Trump, Dems Open Drug Price Talks 
Democrats and the Trump administration are beginning to hold talks on lowering drug prices as they look for a rare area of common ground. Both President Trump and congressional Democrats say that lowering drug prices is a priority, providing a potential area for bipartisan action in a government that is otherwise bitterly divided after a months-long fight over border security. (Sullivan, 2/16)

The Hill: Drug Pricing Fight Centers On Insulin
Lawmakers are zeroing in on the skyrocketing cost of insulin and putting pressure on manufacturers as they work to address high drug prices. Congressional Democrats, Republicans and the Trump administration say that lowering drug prices is a priority, and drugmakers are on the hot seat. Insulin could prove an easy target in that push. The drug hasn’t changed much since it was first discovered nearly 100 years ago, and as newer forms of the drug have been introduced, the price has climbed. (Weixel, 2/20)

Reuters: U.S. Top Court Rejects Maryland Bid To Revive Drug Price-Gouging Law
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Maryland’s bid to revive a law aimed at preventing price gouging by pharmaceutical companies, dealing a setback to the power of states to rein in prescription drug costs. The justices declined to take up Maryland’s appeal of a 2018 federal appeals court ruling that struck down the state’s law, That ruling held that Maryland had regulated wholesale pricing by the companies in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s bar on state-level regulation of interstate commerce. (Chung, 2/19)

The Washington Post: FDA Warns Consumers Against ‘Young Blood’ Plasma Infusions For Dementia, PTSD And Other Conditions
Federal health regulators on Tuesday warned consumers against controversial “young blood” treatments — plasma infusions from young donors marketed for conditions such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis and post-traumatic stress disorder. “There is no proven clinical benefit of infusion of plasma from young donors to cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent these conditions, and there are risks associated with the use of any plasma product,” Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, and Peter Marks, director of the agency’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. (McGinley, 2/19)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Warns On Services Offering Injections Of Young Blood Plasma
Plasma is the liquid portion of blood. Because it contains proteins and can be used to treat bleeding and clotting abnormalities, it has potential benefits in trauma care and other settings. Nevertheless, said Drs. Gottlieb and Marks in a statement, “We’re concerned that some patients are being preyed upon by unscrupulous actors touting treatments of plasma from young donors as cures and remedies.” The two FDA officials said the agency had received reports of “bad actors” charging thousands of dollars for infusions. (Burton, 2/19)

CNN: FDA Warns Against Using Young Blood As Medical Treatment
“There is no proven clinical benefit of infusion of plasma from young donors to cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent these conditions, and there are risks associated with the use of any plasma product,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb wrote in a statement Tuesday. “The reported uses of these products should not be assumed to be safe or effective,” he added, noting that the FDA “strongly” discourages consumers from using this therapy “outside of clinical trials under appropriate institutional review board and regulatory oversight.” (Scutti, 2/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Next Front In Tech Firms’ War On Misinformation: Bad Medical Advice
Pinterest has stopped returning search results for terms relating to vaccinations, a drastic step aimed at curbing the spread of misinformation but one that also reflects the challenge facing social-media companies in monitoring hot-button health issues. Most shared images on Pinterest relating to vaccination cautioned against it, contradicting established medical guidelines and research showing that vaccines are safe, Pinterest said. The image-searching platform tried to remove the antivaccination content, a Pinterest spokeswoman said, but has been unable to remove it completely. (McMillan and Hernandez, 2/20)

Stat: Amazon Leader: AI Can Help Health, But ‘We Need To Ground That In Truth’
In health care, he is known for his work on President Obama’s precision medicine initiative and as the first-ever chief informatics officer at the Food and Drug Administration. Now a senior leader of artificial intelligence at Amazon, Dr. Taha Kass-Hout is working to implement many of his ideas for disrupting health care at one of the world’s largest technology companies. During an interview with STAT at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s meeting in Orlando, Fla., Kass-Hout spoke passionately about the increasing power and utility of AI in health care. (Ross, 2/20)

The Hill: Patients, Health Data Experts Accuse Facebook Of Exposing Personal Info 
A group of patients and health data experts is accusing Facebook of misleading users about how their personal health information can be manipulated and exposed without patients’ explicit permission. In a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint released publicly on Tuesday, the group alleges that Facebook prompts its users to join online medical support groups under the guise that they are “private” – but does not make clear that users could expose their health data when they join those groups. (Birnbaum, 2/19)

The New York Times: Loneliness Is Bad For Your Health. An App May Help. 
Loneliness is bad for your health. Social isolation is associated with a significantly increased risk of premature death. And the problem resists fixing; solitary people who participate in experiments meant to nudge them into joining groups tend to have high rates of recidivism. According to a study published this month in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, however, it might be possible to reduce loneliness by using cellphones to teach a particular type of meditation. (Reynolds, 2/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Armed And Dangerous: How The ATF Retrieves Guns From Banned Buyers
Michael Alan Chance Green, who worked on a ranch as a cowboy, was obsessed with professional wrestler and entertainer Terry Funk. He believed he had to warn him of imminent danger and delivered bizarre handwritten letters to Mr. Funk’s mailbox, until he was charged with stalking. A Texas judge hearing the case declared Mr. Green mentally incompetent and committed him to a state hospital. More than a decade later, in 2016, Mr. Green bought a single-shot rifle at a North Texas gun store. A mandatory federal background check failed to discover in time that he was barred from buying or owning a firearm because of his mental-health troubles. (Frosch and Elinson, 2/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Companies Roll Out Gunshot Detectors At The Office
Corporate executives worried about workplace shootings are quietly installing gunfire-detection systems in U.S. offices and factories. Most don’t tell employees what the sensors are, for fear of alarming them. The rapid uptick in adoption of gunshot sensors follows a wave of workplace shootings in the past year. The latest occurred Friday when a man opened fire at an Aurora, Ill., factory following his termination, killing five co-workers and injuring five police officers. Deadly incidents in recent months include shootings at the California headquarters of YouTube, in the lobby of Fifth Third Bancorp in Cincinnati, at a Maryland newspaper and in a Florida hot-yoga studio. (Cutter, 2/19)

The New York Times: Measles Outbreak: Your Questions Answered
Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, but scattered outbreaks have occurred in recent years. This year there have been five — in New York, Texas, and Washington State — for a total of more than 120 cases. Here’s what you need to know about the disease and the risk of getting it. (Belluck and Hassan, 2/20)

The Hill: Iowa State Senate Rejects Anti-Vaccine Bills 
The Iowa state Senate Tuesday rejected a bill Tuesday that would have prohibited health insurance providers and insurance companies from discriminating against people who refuse to get vaccinated. The Associated Press reported that a Human Resources subcommittee voted down the bill that would have created the Vaccination Safety and Right of Refusal Act. The vote was 2-1, with a Democrat and a Republican teaming up to defeat the bill. (Axelrod, 2/19)

The Wall Street Journal: For Parents Of Ill Children, A Growing Recognition Of PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder in combat soldiers is receiving greater attention and wider societal recognition. Now doctors and researchers are trying to do the same for a group that has similar symptoms: parents of children with life-threatening medical conditions. Shelly Miller of Bridgetown, Ohio, has a teenage son named Dylan who can’t walk or talk due to a rare genetic disorder. One day more than five years ago, after her husband picked him up at a summer camp, Dylan suddenly began vomiting and seizing. They raced to the emergency room, where doctors told them Dylan had suffered a concussion; the parents didn’t know how it had happened. (Marcus, 2/19)

CNN: New Recommendations Say Not All Women Need Genetic Testing For Cancer. Critics Say It Could Cost Lives
Primary care providers should screen women for personal, family and/or ethnic history of breast, ovarian, tubal or peritoneal cancer to decide who should undergo genetic counseling for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, the US Preventive Services Task Force recommended Tuesday. The mutations increase a woman’s cancer risk. The draft guidance, which is open to a month of public comment, is likely to stir a simmering medical debate over how widely genetic testing should be used to screen women for the BRCA mutations. (Scutti, 2/19)

The New York Times: How Many Push-Ups Can You Do? It May Be A Good Predictor Of Heart Health
Could push-ups foretell the future and the state of a person’s heart? A new study in JAMA Network Open hints that this might be the case. It finds that men who can breeze through 40 push-ups in a single exercise session are substantially less likely to experience a heart attack or other cardiovascular problem in subsequent years than men who can complete 10 or fewer. The results suggest that push-up ability might be a simple, reliable and D.I.Y.-in-your-living-room method of assessing heart health, while at the same time helpfully strengthening the triceps and pectorals. (Reynolds, 2/20)

The Wall Street Journal: NYU To Open New Medical School On Long Island
New York University will open a three-year medical school on Long Island next fall, aimed at increasing the number of primary care physicians in the region. The new NYU Long Island School of Medicine will be based at NYU Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, with the first crop of students beginning this summer. They will be selected based in part on their commitment to training and practicing as primary care clinicians in the New York metropolitan area, and will receive full-tuition scholarships to pursue those careers regardless of financial need. (Korn, 2/19)

The Associated Press: Maryland May Give Minors Consent For Preventative HIV Care
State legislation could allow minors to consent to preventative treatment for human immunodeficiency virus or HIV. Pre-exposure prophylaxis_commonly referred to as “PrEP”_consists of a single pill of a medicine called Truvada taken every day. This can reduce the risk of becoming infected with HIV from sex by 90 percent and among intravenous drug users by 70 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control. (Youngmann, 2/19)