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A wave of infections has 38 states dealing with “high or very high” levels of respiratory illness because of COVID-19, RSV and the flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms range from sore throats and coughs that won’t go away to fevers that refuse to break. (LZ Granderson, 1/10)

A slight man falls off his barstool. Now he’s an ER patient, slurring insults and flailing at staff trying to examine him for injuries. When a nurse begs him not to because we don’t know yet whether he has a neck injury, this respectable-looking man in a collared shirt tries to punch her. (Jay Baruch, 1/10)

An emergency room in Fort Scott, Kansas, is the latest casualty of the state’s stance on Medicaid expansion. Today, Kansas sits among just 10 states that have failed to leverage federal dollars to increase needed health care access, improve the local economy and give rural hospitals a fighting chance to survive. (Jeron Ravin, 1/10)

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2022 alone, over 2.5 million children in the United States reported having used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days, with 14.1% of high school students and 3.3% of middle school students succumbing to this concerning trend. This issue is not confined to the national level; it’s a crisis that hits close to home in our Texas communities. (Ann Johnson, 1/9)

For years, public health advocates have been calling on the Food and Drug Administration to ban menthol flavoring in cigarettes. The ban would primarily affect Black smokers, 85% of whom smoke menthol cigarettes. (In comparison, only 30% of white smokers use menthols.) Every year, 9,000 Black men die of lung cancer in the U.S., the highest death rate of any other group. (Michael A. Nutter, 1/10)