Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
14 Psychiatric Disorders Have Genetic Similarities, Large Study Finds
A sweeping new study of psychiatric and genetic records has the potential to change treatment for millions of psychiatric patients. (Johnson, 1/16)
Study links long covid to a family history of cancer 鈥
A new study suggests that US adults with a family history of cancer may face a higher risk of developing long COVID, even if they have never had cancer themselves. (Bergeson, 1/15)
In other public health news 鈥
As a resident of heavily industrial Ascension Parish, Kheri Monks is no stranger to living near petrochemical facilities. Monks has been living in Gonzales for more than a decade. In that time, she had three children. All of them have asthma and were born prematurely. Monks thinks that exposure to pollutants might have led to their health concerns.聽鈥淚 just can鈥檛 help but think, 鈥楽hould I have not given birth here in Louisiana? You know, with all of the environmental concerns that we have?鈥濃 Monks said. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 believe I鈥檓 living, like literally living in Cancer Alley.鈥 (Syed and Tesfaye, 1/15)
Lyme disease (LD) carries a substantial financial burden for both patients and the health care system, suggests a new retrospective cohort study, with costs driven largely by cases that progress beyond early-stage infection. (Bergeson, 1/15)
Measles, once considered eliminated in the U.S., is back in a big way.聽Driven by declining vaccine rates and growing vaccine hesitancy, the United States experienced its largest number of measles cases in decades in 2025, with 2,242 cases reported across the country and outbreaks in Texas, New Mexico, Utah and South Carolina. (Crouch, 1/16)
Wastewater testing can alert public health officials to measles infections days to months before cases are confirmed by doctors, researchers said in two studies published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Colorado health officials were able to get ahead of the highly contagious virus by tracking its presence in sewer systems, researchers wrote. And Oregon researchers found wastewater could have warned them of an outbreak more than two months before the first person tested positive. (Shastri, 1/15)
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) this week noted several commercial poultry outbreaks of avian flu, including an event in Kent County, Delaware, involving 147,900 birds that were part of a commercial broiler operation.聽Walker County, Georgia had the second-largest detection this week, affecting 71,300 birds at a commercial broiler breeder facility.聽(Soucheray, 1/15)
