KHN:
As Pandemic-Period Medicaid Provisions Lapse, Hundreds of thousands Method A Protection Cliff 

States are getting ready to take away tens of millions of individuals from Medicaid as protections put in place early within the covid-19 pandemic expire. The upheaval, which begins in April, will put tens of millions of low-income Individuals susceptible to shedding well being protection, threatening their entry to care and doubtlessly exposing them to giant medical payments. It can additionally put strain on the funds of hospitals, medical doctors, and others counting on funds from Medicaid, a state-federal program that covers lower-income individuals and other people with disabilities. (Galewitz, 2/2)

Bloomberg:
Merck Covid Drug Linked To New Virus Mutations, Research Says

Merck & Co.’s Covid-19 capsule is giving rise to new mutations of the virus in some sufferers, in response to a examine that underscores the chance of attempting to deliberately alter the pathogen’s genetic code. Some researchers fear the drug could create extra contagious or health-threatening variations of Covid, which has killed greater than 6.8 million individuals globally over the previous three years. (Lauerman, 2/1)

Reuters:
U.S. FDA Removes COVID Take a look at Necessities For Pfizer, Merck Drugs 

The U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday eliminated the necessity for a optimistic take a look at for COVID-19 therapies from Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co Inc. Pfizer’s Paxlovid and Merck’s Lagevrio drugs got emergency use authorizations in Dec. 2021 for sufferers with mild-to-moderate COVID who examined optimistic for the virus, and who had been susceptible to progressing to extreme COVID. Nonetheless, the FDA mentioned the sufferers ought to have a present prognosis of mild-to-moderate COVID an infection. (2/1)

San Francisco Chronicle:
Bay Space’s Largest County Shutting Down Its Mass COVID-19 Vaccination, Testing Websites

Almost three years after it turned the primary county within the nation to declare COVID-19 a public well being emergency, Santa Clara County introduced Wednesday a plan to transition out of the emergency section of the pandemic by the top of February. That features the closure of all of the county-run mass vaccination and testing websites. Residents of the Bay Space’s most populous county will probably be directed as an alternative to non-public well being care suppliers, pharmacies or native clinics. (Vaziri, 2/1)

San Francisco Chronicle:
State To Drop Plan For Schoolchildren Vaccine Mandate

California will drop its plan to require schoolchildren to get vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19 as soon as the state’s pandemic state of emergency order ends on Feb. 28. “We proceed to strongly advocate COVID-19 immunization for college kids and workers to maintain everybody safer within the classroom,” the California Division of Public Well being mentioned in an electronic mail to EdSource, confirming the change. (Vaziri, 2/1)

Axios:
The Funding Cliff For Pupil Psychological Well being

Public faculty districts that acquired a windfall of COVID aid funds for psychological well being providers are confronting a brand new dilemma: The right way to maintain counseling, screenings, teletherapy and different applications when the cash runs out. (Moreno, 2/2)

Reuters:
Draft WHO Pandemic Deal Pushes For Fairness To Keep away from COVID ‘Failure’ Repeat

Governments could have to order medication and vaccines for the World Well being Group to distribute in poorer nations to keep away from a repeat of the “catastrophic failure” through the COVID-19 pandemic, in response to an early draft of a worldwide pandemic settlement. One of the crucial concrete proposals within the draft accord reviewed by Reuters on Wednesday features a measure to order 20% of any checks, vaccines or therapies developed to be used in poorer nations. (Rigby and Tetrault-Farber, 2/2)

Politico:
Harris At Tyre Nichols’ Funeral: This Is not Public Security

The funeral of Tyre Nichols, a Black man who died after being crushed by cops in Memphis, Tenn., was marked by emotion, music and a renewed name for justice on Wednesday, together with by Vice President Kamala Harris. “It is a household that misplaced their son and their brother by means of an act of violence, by the hands and the ft of people that had been charged with conserving them protected,” Harris mentioned on the service in Memphis. (Olander, 2/1)

The Washington Put up:
Metro Worker Killed Whereas Making an attempt To Cease Man Taking pictures At D.C. Commuters

A Metro worker who tried to cease a gunman focusing on commuters Wednesday was fatally shot on a D.C. prepare station platform in a taking pictures rampage that injured three others, halted rail service for hours and once more left residents unsettled as the town continues to confront gun violence. Police mentioned the gunman appeared to pick out his victims randomly close to the top of the morning rush hour. The assault began on a Metrobus touring from Maryland and ended underground on the platform of the Potomac Avenue Metro station in Southeast Washington. (Mettler and George, 2/1)

CNN:
‘Run, Cover, Struggle’ Tactic In Lively Shootings Could Be Outdated, Safety Specialists Say

You’ve in all probability heard these three phrases – run, conceal, struggle. The techniques from the FBI, echoed to legislation enforcement businesses throughout the nation, have been used for many years to show civilians their choices if confronted by an lively shooter: evacuate the realm, discover a place to cover, or – as a final resort – take motion in opposition to the shooter. Increasingly more, although, participating the gunman could show simpler than the opposite selections, CNN Nationwide Safety Analyst Juliette Kayyem mentioned, with a minimum of one US group shifting away from the “conceal” piece in lieu of extra lively defensive steps. (Gingras, Kapp and Ly, 1/31)

The Hill:
Decide Blocks NJ Legislation Permitting State To Sue Gun Trade

A federal choose has briefly blocked a New Jersey legislation that allowed the state to sue gun producers for making a “public nuisance” with their sale and advertising and marketing of firearms. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed the legislation in June to create a path for suing firms engaged within the sale, manufacture, distribution, importing or advertising and marketing of gun-related merchandise for a public nuisance, outlined as conduct that interferes with the general public’s rights. (Gans, 2/1)

Harvard Public Well being:
New Gun Deaths Information In U.S. Present Continued Rise In Suicides

Gun homicides, together with mass shootings, are a pervasive and horrific challenge, and now we have rightly centered consideration on lowering them. However a majority of gun deaths, 54 p.c, within the U.S. aren’t homicides, they’re suicides. Certainly, because the Giffords Legislation Middle to Forestall Gun Violence places it, suicide is “the untold story of gun violence in America.” Each suicides and gun deaths have elevated over the past twenty years, and there’s a robust hyperlink between firearms and suicide deaths. Suicide-by-gun makes up most of each gun deaths and total suicide deaths (over half of every). (Kelly, 2/1)

NPR:
Federal Decide May Drive Abortion Capsule Mifepristone Off The Market 

A case earlier than a federal choose in Texas might dramatically alter abortion entry in the USA – a minimum of as a lot, some consultants say, because the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies’s Well being Group determination final yr, which overturned a long time of abortion-rights precedent. (McCammon, 2/1)

CNN:
Republican AGs Warn Pharmacies Towards Mailing Abortion Drugs Inside Their States

Republican attorneys basic from 20 states wrote letters to executives at CVS and Walgreens warning the pharmacy chains in opposition to utilizing the mail to dispense abortion drugs of their states, in a shot in opposition to a brand new Biden administration coverage. (Sneed, 2/1)

Reuters:
West Virginia Clinic, Physician Sue Over State’s New Abortion Ban 

West Virginia’s solely abortion clinic and the clinic’s main physician on Wednesday filed a lawsuit difficult the near-total abortion ban handed by the state final yr, saying it violates sufferers’ constitutional rights. Of their grievance within the Charleston, West Virginia federal courtroom, Ladies’s Well being Middle of West Virginia and the physician, recognized as John Doe, are asking the courtroom for a direct order blocking enforcement of the legislation whereas the case goes ahead. (Pierson, 2/1)

AP:
Nebraska Lawmakers Put Off Vote On ‘Heartbeat’ Abortion Ban 

The Nebraska Legislature’s Well being and Human Providers Committee took practically eight hours of testimony Wednesday earlier than adjourning with no vote on whether or not to advance a invoice that will outlaw abortion at some extent earlier than many ladies know they’re pregnant. A whole bunch of individuals crowded the halls of the state Capitol for a committee listening to on a so-called heartbeat invoice. The invoice would ban abortions as soon as cardiac exercise could be detected in an embryo, which is mostly across the sixth week of being pregnant. (Beck, 2/2)

Stat:
Biden Administration Floats Main 2024 Pay Minimize For Medicare Benefit Plans

Medicare Benefit insurers might face a median 2.3% lower to baseline funds in 2024, the Biden administration mentioned Wednesday. If the proposal stands, it will be a internet lower of greater than $3 billion to the business. (Herman, 2/1)

Stat:
FTC: GoodRx Leaked Delicate Well being Information To Fb, Google

The Federal Commerce Fee on Wednesday accused GoodRx, the prescription drug low cost platform, of sharing delicate private details about its customers’ prescriptions and well being circumstances with huge tech firms. (Ravindranath, 2/1)

ABC Information:
FDA Points Warning Letters To Corporations Promoting Unproven Mpox Remedies

A brand new warning from the Meals and Drug Administration urges shoppers to watch out for entrepreneurs trying to promote unlawful and unproven mpox “treatment” and “cures” to be able to swindle scared, susceptible individuals and bilk them out of their cash. The company additionally shared a sequence of images of the alleged unlawful merchandise on the market. (Pezenik, 2/2)

NBC Information:
Provide Of Weight Loss Drug Wegovy Anticipated To Enhance In Subsequent Few Months, Firm Says

The maker of the favored weight reduction drug Wegovy mentioned Wednesday that it’s ramping up manufacturing of the drug, which has been briefly provide in pharmacies throughout the USA. The drug confronted widespread shortages final yr because of its growing recognition, executives for drugmaker Novo Nordisk, mentioned on a name with buyers Wednesday. (Lovelace Jr., 2/1)

Stat:
Blood-Clot Catching Units Are Nonetheless In Use, Regardless of Issues

Inferior vena cava filters are supposed to save lots of lives. The spider-like gadgets catch blood clots earlier than they will journey as much as the lung and trigger lethal pulmonary embolisms. However for over a decade, these gadgets have been dogged by questions on how properly they work and the intense problems they will trigger for sufferers. (Lawrence, 2/2)

Philadelphia Inquirer:
Penn Researchers Are Learning Proton Remedy For Breast Most cancers

Heather Klebon was weeding in her backyard at her Delaware seaside home when she felt a painful lump in her left breast on a summer season afternoon in 2019.She would quickly study she had breast most cancers. “My complete world stopped,” Klebon recalled. (Ruderman, 2/1)

AP:
NY Decide Jails Ex-Gynecologist Who Abused 100s Of Ladies

An ex-gynecologist convicted of sexually abusing a whole bunch of sufferers was ordered to spend the subsequent two months in jail as he awaits sentencing, a federal choose in New York Metropolis dominated Wednesday. After listening to statements from among the victims through the bail listening to, U.S. District Court docket Decide Richard Berman tersely shot down protection attorneys in search of to permit the physician, Robert Hadden, to stay free whereas awaiting an April sentencing listening to. … Hadden had labored at two prestigious Manhattan hospitals — Columbia College Irving Medical Middle and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital — till complaints about his assaults shut down his profession a decade in the past. (2/2)

AP:
NY Governor Vetoes Adjustments To Wrongful Loss of life Legislation 

New York’s governor has vetoed a invoice that will have allowed wrongful demise lawsuits to incorporate claims for emotional harm, a change that might have led to a lot greater payouts for deadly accidents and lethal medical errors. The invoice, which had robust bipartisan assist when it handed the Legislature final yr, would have introduced New York into line with a majority of different states that enable courts to think about emotional ache when calculating how a lot a misplaced life was value. (Khan, 1/31)

Stat:
New York’s Hospitals Are Poised For Political Energy This Congress

The brand new Democratic management group in Congress is just about the New York hospital foyer’s dream group. Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has lengthy been an ally of the Higher New York Hospital Affiliation, typically pushing for extra funding for educating slots at hospitals. He goes again a long time with the foyer’s CEO, Kenneth Raske. And new Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is one other New Yorker representing a Brooklyn district, although he has a much less strong report on well being care. (Cohrs, 2/2)

San Francisco Chronicle:
Feds Grant S.F.’s Laguna Honda Reprieve On Affected person Transfers Till Could 19

Federal regulators gave San Francisco’s Laguna Honda nursing residence a last-minute reprieve on Wednesday from a possible demand to renew transferring its frail residents from the power as quickly as Thursday. The Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers knowledgeable Laguna Honda on Wednesday that it had granted the hospital’s request for a delay till Could 19. The discover got here someday earlier than the deadline affected person advocates had dreaded, believing it will be a dwell or die second in time — actually. (Asimov, 2/1)

Los Angeles Instances:
L.A. College students Will Be Ready To Carry Narcan In Colleges

College students will have the ability to carry Narcan, a nasal spray that may reverse an opioid overdose, in Los Angeles Unified faculties beneath a soon-to-be-updated coverage. The transfer, introduced to high school board members in a message from Supt. Alberto M. Carvalho, comes amid continued alarm in regards to the risks of illicit fentanyl, a strong artificial opioid that has been consumed unknowingly by teenagers in counterfeit drugs that seem like Xanax or OxyContin. (Alpert Reyes, 2/1)

CalMatters:
Mpox Reimbursements To Clinics Lagging

Seven months in the past, California battled its second widespread infectious illness outbreak in as a few years — mpox, previously known as monkeypox. Instances unfold exponentially, primarily among the many state’s male LGBTQ inhabitants, and officers struggled to roll out restricted vaccine provides from the federal authorities. Group clinics and LGBTQ well being facilities opened mass mpox vaccination websites as rapidly as potential and clamored for help from native and legislative leaders, however oftentimes purple tape at each the federal and state stage hampered a speedy response. (Hwang, 1/31)

AP:
TennCare: Almost 300k Tennesseans Seemingly To Lose Protection

Almost 300,000 Tennesseans who enrolled in Medicaid through the COVID-19 pandemic are anticipated to lose their protection this yr now that state officers are as soon as once more allowed to bump individuals from the government-funded medical insurance program. A spokesperson for TennCare, the state’s Medicaid program, mentioned this week that no removals will happen till April 1, although she mentioned in an electronic mail that the “redetermination course of” will start in March. (Kruesi, 2/1)

AP:
Tenn. GOP Lawmakers Block Questions On Cuts To HIV Funding 

Republican lawmakers in Tennessee on Wednesday continued to dam Democratic lawmakers from questioning the newly appointed well being czar’s contentious determination to forgo practically $9 million in federal funding designed to forestall and deal with HIV. Earlier this month, information broke that Tennessee would stroll away from the funding on the finish of Could after state officers initially tried to oust Deliberate Parenthood from this system in November amid Republican furor over the group’s lengthy promotion of abortion entry and transgender well being care. Abortion is presently banned in Tennessee whereas Republicans are pushing to ban gender-affirming care to minors. (Kruesi, 2/1)

The Washington Put up:
In Custody Dispute, Va. Decide Orders Breastfeeding Mother To Use Bottle

When Arleta Ramirez’s daughter was born in July, there was no query what the woman’s weight loss program could be. Breastmilk is endorsed by the World Well being Group and the American Academy of Pediatrics, which cites “unequivocal proof” it protects newborns from illness. Ramirez was additionally a breastfeeding veteran — she’d breastfed her son for 2 years. Nevertheless, Ramirez’s plan — and her daughter’s meals provide — quickly bumped into an unexpected impediment: a custody dispute. (Moyer, 2/1)

The Colorado Solar:
Individuals With Disabilities Stranded By Unplowed Streets In Denver

For practically two weeks after a late December snowstorm that left 7 inches of snow on the bottom in Denver, when Julie Reiskin wanted to go away her residence within the Clayton neighborhood, she needed to roll her wheelchair down the center of busy streets after which station herself on the street to flag down a public bus. That have, she mentioned, was “terrifying.” And it was because of Denver’s snow plowing protocol. (McCoy, 1/30)

The Washington Put up:
New Concussion Protocol For Youngsters: Get Them Again To Faculty Sooner 

For years, the therapy protocol for kids with concussions concerned conserving them out of college to relaxation in a quiet, darkish room with diminished entry to screens till they felt higher. Prior to now decade, nonetheless, medical doctors have been transferring towards encouraging youngsters to return to high school and light-weight exercise after solely a few days of relaxation, even when signs persist. A just lately launched examine involving greater than 1,500 youngsters backs the brand new method. It discovered that an early return to high school — which researchers outlined as lacking lower than three days — benefited youngsters ages 8 to 18, who had much less extreme signs two weeks after their concussion in contrast with youngsters who stayed residence longer. In reality, an extended keep at residence appeared to delay restoration. (Chang, 2/1)

CBS Information:
Conagra Manufacturers Remembers Almost 2.6 Million Kilos Of Canned Meat And Poultry

Conagra Manufacturers has recalled virtually 2.6 million kilos of canned meat and poultry merchandise due to a packaging defect that will have prompted the meals to get contaminated, the U.S. Division of Agriculture says. (Singh, 2/1)

The Wall Road Journal:
Harmful Fungi Are Spreading Throughout U.S. as Temperatures Rise

Harmful fungal infections are on the rise, and a rising physique of analysis suggests hotter temperatures is perhaps a wrongdoer. The human physique’s common temperature of 98.6 levels Fahrenheit has lengthy been too scorching for many fungi to thrive, infectious-disease specialists say. However as temperatures have risen globally, some fungi is perhaps adapting to endure extra warmth stress, together with circumstances throughout the human physique, analysis suggests. Local weather change may also be creating circumstances for some disease-causing fungi to broaden their geographical vary, analysis reveals. (Mosbergen, 2/1)

Reuters:
Case Of Mad Cow Illness In Netherlands Is Previous Age Variant 

A case of mad cow illness found on a farm within the Netherlands is the previous age variant that’s not harmful to public well being, the agriculture ministry mentioned on Wednesday. The an infection was present in a lifeless cow on Jan. 30 within the South Holland province of the Netherlands. (2/1)