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A heartbreaking milestone haunts this year’s 9/11 anniversary — 341 FDNY members have now died of Ground Zero-related illnesses, nearly equaling the death toll for city smoke eaters that perished in the 2001 terror attack. (Andrews and Burke, 9/8)

Two victims recovered from the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 have been identified 22 years after the deadly terrorist plot, New York officials said in a Friday release. The man and woman, whose names are being withheld at the request of their families, are the 1,648th and 1,649th victims to be identified, Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jason Graham announced. The victims were identified using advanced DNA testing of their remains, including recently adopted next-generation sequencing technology, which has been used to identify missing U.S. service members and the victims of the Maui wildfires. (Stimson, 9/8)

Despite forensic advancements, the effort to identify the remains of 9/11 victims has slowed in recent years. The two positive identifications are the first since September 2021, officials said. Before that, the last identification was made in 2019. More than 1,000 human remains from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have yet to be identified. They are currently being stored at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center site. Dr. Jason Graham, the city’s chief medical examiner, said officials were committed to fulfilling their “solemn pledge” to return the remains of all of the attack’s victims. (Offenhartz, 9/8)

Three weeks after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Jerry Vanderberg returned to his brokerage firm across the street from the still-smoldering pile at Ground Zero and spent days sifting through office documents caked in the fine dust from the fallen Twin Towers. Nine years later, when he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare blood cancer. ... But Dr. David Siegel, a myeloma specialist at Hackensack University Medical Center, believes that exposure to 9/11 fumes and dust caused Vanderberg and two of his other patients to develop the disease. (Fallon, 9/11)

Two retired NYPD sergeants, now health care providers, continue to see health challenges among first responders more than two decades after the terrorist attacks. (Zubrow, 9/10)

Mental health experts share insights and tips for handling grief — and shed new light on the "five stages of grief." (Sudhakar, 9/9)

Early research data has shown that antibodies produced by prior infection or existing vaccines against the coronavirus were sufficient to protect against the new BA.2.86 variant, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday. (9/8)

The latest Covid boosters are expected to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration as early as Monday, arriving alongside the seasonal flu vaccine and shots to protect infants and older adults from R.S.V., a potentially lethal respiratory virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to follow up on Tuesday with an advisory meeting to discuss who should get the new shots, by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. After a final decision by the C.D.C.’s director, millions of doses will be shipped to pharmacies, clinics and health systems nationwide within days. (Jewett, 9/11)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: CDC Faces Dilemma Over Recommending New Covid Booster For All 

A small percentage of Americans got the most recent covid-19 booster shot, and even fewer probably realize the federal government is preparing to recommend yet another shot as early as Tuesday. Until a week or two ago, William Schaffner read that indifference as a sign the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should advocate vaccinating only those most at risk from the virus. (Allen, 9/11)

Intelligent people get their COVID-19 vaccines much faster, suggests a study of more than 750,000 people in Sweden published in the Journal of Health Economics. ... A total of 80% of the most intelligent people were vaccinated within 40 days of vaccine availability, while it took 180 days for those with the lowest cognitive ability to reach that level. The results, the researchers said, suggest that the complexity of the vaccination decision may make it difficult for people with lower cognitive abilities to understand the benefits of vaccination. (Van Beusekom, 9/8)

An Aug. 28 Facebook post shared by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro claims the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed an adverse reaction reporting system from its website. The CDC ended enrollment in its v-safe program, not its Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Adverse reactions can still be reported, and data from v-safe is still available to the public, according to a spokesperson for the organization. (Hudnall, 9/8)

COVID-19 and influenza vaccines can be safety administered together, with no significant drop in antibody response, according to a study led by Sheba Medical Center researchers in Israel. The research, published today in JAMA Network Open, involved healthcare workers (HCWs) who received Abbott's Influvac Tetra (four-strain) flu vaccine, the bivalent (two-strain) COVID-19 booster from Pfizer/BioNTech, or both (one in each arm), from September 2022 to January 2023. (Van Beusekom, 9/8)

Flu shots reduced people’s risk of being hospitalized for the disease by about half, according to early data from countries south of the equator, a positive sign for the US and Europe where the upcoming season is still on the horizon. Influenza vaccines formulated to target circulating flu strains were 52% effective at preventing hospitalizations in young children and older adults in the Southern Hemisphere, according the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly in line with how the shots usually perform. (Muller, 9/8)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Journalists Recap How Smallpox Was Wiped Out And How Opioid Settlement Cash Is Being Paid Out 

Céline Gounder, �鶹Ů�� Health News’ senior fellow and editor-at-large for public health, discussed the podcast “Epidemic: Eradicating Smallpox” podcast on NPR’s “Shortwave” on Aug. 30. Gounder also discussed new covid variants, vaccines, and the new season of the “Epidemic: Eradicating Smallpox” podcast on Lemonada Media’s “In the Bubble With Andy Slavitt” on Aug. 23. ... �鶹Ů�� Health News senior correspondent Aneri Pattani discussed the latest developments in opioid settlement funds being distributed across the country on WFAE’s “Charlotte Talks With Mike Collins” on Aug. 30. (9/9)

The researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital teamed up with experts in immunology and virology to look for clues about long COVID in blood samples from patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases. The team found that among these patients, those who developed long COVID were more likely to have expanded, pro-inflammatory antibodies specific to a coronavirus that causes the common cold. (Sobey, 9/8)

At a recent medical gathering, researchers presented their latest hypotheses about what causes – and what could treat – the lingering disease. (Stone, 9/9)

At first, Debbie Tumbarello’s wedding was the height of romance — a Valentine’s Day whirlwind straight out of “Sleepless in Seattle,” she said. Tumbarello, who lives in Inverness, married her husband in Las Vegas on Feb. 14. She left Vegas with memories of a Beatles tribute show and a rooftop ceremony. However, she also left with COVID-19 — and hasn’t come back to full health since. (Arougheti, 9/11)

Among people who are still paying attention to Covid-19, there’s been a recent surge — not just in viral activity but in the concern once again being paid to Covid. While the angst is understandable, there’s something we need to grasp at this point in our coexistence with SARS-CoV-2: This is our life now. (Branswell, 9/10)

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former top infectious disease expert in the U.S., isn’t sounding alarm bells on the rising number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. yet, but he did caution that the trend will continue into the fall and winter months. “I wouldn’t say that I’m alarmed but I’m certainly keeping an eye on it,” Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. The former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is now a professor at Georgetown University. (Garrity, 9/10)

Deer, it turns out, are susceptible to COVID infections. While the outcome of human infections can range to hospitalization, long-term health effects and death, whitetails barely show symptoms, if they show any.Most important to people, perhaps, is that the deer living alongside us in suburban settings and those roaming woods and fields are serving as a reservoir for the pathogen. In short, a path of transmission from humans to deer provides a potential path from deer to humans. (Golowenski, 9/10)

Gov. Gavin Newsom said criticism of California’s tough Covid-19 restrictions was valid and he would have taken an entirely different approach, given what he knows now about the pandemic. “I think we would’ve done everything differently,” Newsom said in a taped interview set to air on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday. (Cadelago, 9/10)

New Jersey’s leaders appear to agree with Justice Department findings that state-run veterans homes failed residents during COVID-19 and continue to violate their constitutional rights, but there’s little clarity on how exactly they’ll address the issues. The Democrat-led Legislature and Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy gave the strongest indications yet that they’ll be addressing the problems highlighted in the report. (Catalini, 9/8)

In a technical briefing on SARS-CoV-2 variants today, the UK Health Security Agency (HSA) revealed that, of 34 confirmed involving the highly mutated BA.2.86 variant, 28 were from a single outbreak at a nursing home, an early sign that it can spread in close-contact settings. (Schnirring, 9/8)

The Biden administration has halted funding for a research program that sought to discover and catalogue thousands of exotic pathogens from around the world, officials confirmed Thursday, effectively ending a controversial virus-hunting endeavor that opponents say raised the risk of an accidental outbreak. The U.S. Agency for International Development quietly notified the program’s main contractor in July that the $125 million project was being terminated less than two years after its inception, amid opposition from lawmakers as well as a number of prominent scientists and public health experts. (Warrick, 9/7)

The future of the most popular method of terminating a pregnancy is back before the Supreme Court after the Biden administration and pharmaceutical company Danco appealed a lower court ruling rolling back years of FDA policies broadening access to the drug. The Supreme Court is unlikely to consider the case until next year at the earliest, and the justices previously ruled that no changes to federal regulation of the pills will happen until then — leaving the current state-by-state patchwork of access in place for now. (Ollstein, 9/8)

Republican strategists are exploring a shift away from “pro-life” messaging on abortion after consistent Election Day losses for the GOP when reproductive rights were on the ballot. At a closed-door meeting of Senate Republicans this week, the head of a super PAC closely aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., presented poll results that suggested voters are reacting differently to commonly used terms like “pro-life” and “pro-choice” in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, said several senators who were in the room. ... Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., summarized Wednesday’s meeting as being focused on “pro-baby policies.” (Tsirkin, Santaliz, Leach and Brown-Kaiser, 9/7)

This battle over what the abortion-rights movement should fight for is playing out across the country, as activists in Ohio, Arizona, Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota are working on ballot initiatives, mostly for the 2024 cycle. (Pauly, 9/11)

In crafting an anti-abortion message that doesn’t alienate moderate Republicans and swing voters, her approach has won both supporters and detractors. (Lerer, 9/9)

Vice President Kamala Harris rejected claims from some Republican officials that Democrats want to allow abortions up until a person gives birth. ... Asked by CBS’ Margaret Brennan what “week of pregnancy” Harris believes a potential abortion law should protect, the vice president repeatedly said “We need to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade” and that the Biden administration is “not trying to do anything that did not exist before June of last year.” (Pitofsky, 9/10)

Missouri’s Supreme Court will once again determine whether the state has the authority to restrict public funds from going to Planned Parenthood, after the attorney general formally filed its appeal last week of a December ruling that deemed the effort unconstitutional. (Bates, 9/11)

The graves at the edge of the orphanage tell a story of despair. The rough planks in the cracked earth are painted with the names of children, most of them dead in the 1990s. That was before the HIV drugs arrived. Today, the orphanage in Kenya’s capital is a happier, more hopeful place for children with HIV. But a political fight taking place in the United States is threatening the program that helps to keep them and millions of others around the world alive. The reason for the threat? Abortion. (Musambi, Amiri, Anna and Knickmeyer, 9/9)

The White House should create a national patient safety team to help reduce high levels of dangerous care in the medical system, presidential advisers recommended Thursday. Progress in addressing preventable harms like medication errors and hospital-acquired infections has been "unacceptably slow," necessitating a White House-led initiative to improve patient safety, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology wrote in a report. (Goldman, 9/8)

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will hold a confirmation hearing next month for Monica Bertagnolli, President Biden’s nominee to run the National Institutes of Health, he said Friday. Sanders, whose health committee oversees the confirmation of the NIH nominee, had refused to hold a hearing on Bertagnolli until the Biden administration promised more drug pricing reform. (Wilkerson, 9/8)

As questions over elected official official’s physical and mental fitness to serve swirl after Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s, R-Ky., second freezing episode, Cassidy, also a physician, said he thinks it should be a “house rule” for candidates to release their medical records. “I think if you want to be the President of the United States, or a senator or House member then there is a responsibility over and above that of just offering yourself,” Cassidy said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” (Tran, 9/10)

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz fumed at President Joe Biden’s administration, claiming it plans to strictly curb Americans’ alcohol consumption. In an interview with Newsmax, the Texas Republican accused the Biden administration of limiting Americans to only two beers a week. ... The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s director said the U.S. may consider recommending adults consume only two drinks per week. But even if such a recommendation is issued, it will be a recommendation, not a mandate. (Barahi, 9/10)

During the same week that naloxone — a nasal spray that reverses opioid overdoses — became available for purchase without a prescription, the nation’s top substance use officials called for greater availability and training for the drug, with five federal officials receiving training to administer it during a public demonstration at Health and Human Services headquarters Friday. (Raman, 9/8)

The Biden administration is urging employers to keep the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone on hand, comparing it to workplaces preparing emergency plans in case of a fire. Narcan, a nasal spray version of naloxone, became available over-the-counter at major retailers for the first time this week amid record levels of overdoses from increasingly lethal forms of opioids like fentanyl. (Reed, 9/10)

The country's fentanyl crisis has become a potent political weapon, reflecting its deep and emotional impact on millions of Americans. The opioid epidemic was once a rare topic that brought Republicans and Democrats together. But even as overdose deaths continue to climb, the discourse around fentanyl has become more politicized and, at times, less aligned with reality — especially when Republicans talk about its connection to the U.S.-Mexico border. (Owens, 9/11)

One of the nation’s largest grocery chains is the latest company to agree to settle lawsuits over the U.S. opioid crisis. In a deal announced Friday, the Kroger Co. would pay up to $1.4 billion over 11 years. The amount includes up to $1.2 billion for state and local governments where it operates, $36 million to Native American tribes and about $177 million to cover lawyers’ fees and costs. (Mulvihill, 9/8)

When Jennie Burke’s 13-year-old daughter needed hernia surgery six years ago, it wasn’t the operation Burke feared — it was her daughter’s recovery from it, and whether she’d need opioids to keep the pain at bay. At the time, Burke’s brother was “hitting rock bottom” from a heroin addiction that would later kill him. Like many Americans in the early 2000s, he became addicted to opioids after being prescribed OxyContin following an appendectomy. In 2020, the year he died, 68,630 people died from opioid overdoses. (Roberts, 9/11)

Afghanistan is the world’s fastest-growing maker of methamphetamine, a report from the United Nations drug agency said Sunday. The country is also a major opium producer and heroin source, even though the Taliban declared a war on narcotics after they returned to power in August 2021. The United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crimes, which published the report, said meth in Afghanistan is mostly made from legally available substances or extracted from the ephedra plant, which grows in the wild. (Butt, 9/10)

Kaiser Permanente agreed to $49 million in settlement after an investigation by the California attorney general and six different district attorney offices found that the healthcare giant illegally disposed of hazardous medical waste and protected patient information in unsecured dumpsters. State Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced the settlement on Friday that also requires that Kaiser take significant steps to prevent future unlawful dumping. (San Román, 9/9)

A U.S. federal judge said Meta Platforms must face a lawsuit claiming that it violated the medical privacy of patients who were treated by hospitals and other healthcare providers that used its Meta Pixel tracking tool. U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco said the plaintiffs could pursue claims that Meta violated a federal wiretap law and a California privacy law, and violated its own contractual promises governing user privacy on Facebook. (Stempel, 9/8)

Just days before assisting in his first major shoulder-replacement surgery last year, Dr. Jake Shine strapped on a virtual reality headset and got to work. As a third-year orthopedics resident at Kettering Health Dayton in Ohio, Shine was standing in the medical center’s designated VR lab with his attending physician, who would oversee the procedure. Both doctors were wearing Meta Quest 2 headsets as they walked through a 3D simulation of the surgery. (Capoot, 9/9)

Walmart Inc. is exploring buying a majority stake in ChenMed, a closely held operator of primary care clinics for seniors, according to people familiar with the matter. The companies are in talks for a deal that would value ChenMed at several billion dollars, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. A deal could still be weeks away, the people said. (Davis, 9/9)

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan will eliminate 20% of prior authorization requirements, joining big players such as UnitedHealth Group and Cigna in responding to complaints about what providers characterize as an increasing burden, the company announced Thursday. ... The health insurance company holds a 68% commercial plan market share in Michigan, which the American Medical Association deems the second-least-competitive insurance market in the U.S. (Tepper, 9/8)

Coronary stenting is, by some measures, the most overused procedure in hospitals. The problem costs the health system millions and unnecessarily exposes patients to risks of blood clots, torn arteries, infections, and other life-threatening injuries. (Bannow, 9/11)

A large independent group of oncologists in Philadelphia is suing the area’s dominant hospital system, Jefferson Health, alleging the system is violating federal antitrust and kickback laws by creating a “concerted campaign to eliminate” the group’s “presence in the oncology marketplace.” (Herman, 9/8)

Most states don’t declare emergency medical services (EMS) to be an “essential service,” meaning the state government isn’t required to provide or fund them. Now, though, a growing number of states are taking interest in recognizing ambulance services as essential — a long-awaited move for EMS agencies and professionals in the field, who say they hope to see more states follow through. Experts say the momentum might be driven by the pandemic, a decline in volunteerism and the rural health care shortage. (Hassanein, 9/11)

Mental health startups are opting for a business model that starts in school. Elementary school. A growing number of mental telehealth companies are offering their services to school-age children by working with local schools. Many received federal COVID-19 pandemic relief funds, but with usage of this money set to expire, companies are looking to prove their value to cash-strapped school districts. (Turner, 9/8)

Dr. Starling Tolliver knew she wanted to become a doctor. Yet, as a Black girl growing up in Akron, Ohio, it was a dream that felt out of reach. She rarely saw doctors who looked like her. As a child, she experienced severe hair loss, and struggled to find a dermatologist who could help. Tolliver made a pact with two childhood best friends to become doctors who would care for Black and underserved communities like their own. Now 30, she is in her final year of dermatology residency at Wayne State University in Detroit. (Stafford, 9/11)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: A Father Dreamed Of A Home For His Family. Medical Debt Nearly Pushed Them Onto The Streets

Kayce Atencio used to be haunted by a thought while working at a homeless shelter in downtown Denver. “It could have been me,” said Atencio, 30, who lives in a small apartment with his son and daughter not far from the shelter. It nearly was. Atencio and his children for years slept on friends’ couches or stayed with family, unable to rent an apartment because of poor credit. A big reason, he said, was medical debt. (Levey, 9/11)

A Democrat has signed on to a legislative package that would require health care transparency by law and enact modest payment reforms to pharmacy middlemen and hospitals, increasing its chances of passing the House of Representatives. (Cohrs, 9/8)

Investors haven’t been taking pharma’s legal effort against President Biden’s drug pricing policy too seriously: When Merck became the first of several entities to sue the U.S. government this summer, its stock was among the worst large-cap laggards that day. But as the industry unleashes a torrent of legal action in federal courts across the country—with Novartis becoming the latest company to join the fray—investors should be paying closer attention as surprises could be in store. (Wainer, 9/9)

A diagnosis of ALS has long been seen as a death sentence. But in recent years, progress in the world of ALS research and drug development has come to embody a conundrum with far broader implications: The balance between moving aggressively on promising new cures and guarding against false hope. (Facher, 9/8)

On the morning of May 14, Anthony died by suicide at his home in Indiana. Although he had experienced depression in the past, his family was shocked by his death and attributes it to Ozempic. ... In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration’s adverse event reporting system, or FAERS, had received 59 reports of suicidal ideation, six reports of suicide attempts and four reports of suicide related to Ozempic as of June 30. Wegovy — which carries a warning about suicidal thoughts — had six reports of suicidal ideation and no reports of suicide or suicide attempts. (Bendix, 9/10)

AstraZeneca Plc’s Tagrisso delayed the worsening of advanced lung cancer longer when combined with chemotherapy, according to a study that may help solidify its place in treating the disease. Getting both medicines slowed the progression of advanced, non-small cell lung tumors for nine months more than Tagrisso alone, researchers said Monday at the World Conference on Lung Cancer in Singapore. The combination cut patients’ risk of death or disease progression by 38% compared with Tagrisso alone, the researchers said. (Matsuyama, 9/11)

Crinetics Pharmaceuticals announced on Sunday that its experimental drug for acromegaly, a rare and serious hormonal disorder, succeeded in a late-stage trial, bringing the San Diego biotech a step closer to applying for Food and Drug Administration approval — and entry into a crowded market with blockbuster therapies sold by pharma giants. (Wosen, 9/10)

Does a common ingredient used in many over-the-counter cold and allergy medicines actually work to get rid of nasal congestion? That’s the question the Food and Drug Administration will pose to a panel of outside advisers during a two-day meeting next week to re-evaluate the effectiveness of the ingredient, phenylephrine, which is found in many decongestants. (Lovelace Jr., 9/8)

Heart disease is killing fewer Americans overall, however, cardiovascular deaths where obesity was listed as a key contributing factor have tripled between 1999 and 2020, according to a new study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association. And, Black women had the highest mortality rate out of all the population groups studied. (Balthazar, 9/8)

Lying down while getting your blood pressure taken could result in a more accurate reading, according to new findings presented at the American Heart Association (AHA)'s Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2023 on Saturday in Boston. Researchers found that among people with high blood pressure, the readings more accurately predicted future stroke, heart issues and death when people were lying down compared to those who were sitting, according to a press release from the AHA. (Rudy, 9/10)

Parents who were big babies are likelier to have children with high birth weights, new research from Norway suggests. In an analysis published in Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, researchers link parental birth weight to that of their children. (Blakemore, 9/9)

Food safety experts and federal agencies use the terms “extraneous” or “foreign” materials to describe things like metal fragments, rubber gaskets and bits of bugs that somehow make it into packaged goods. “Extraneous materials” triggered nine recalls in 2022 of more than 477,000 pounds of food regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service — triple the number of recalls tied to food contaminated with toxic E. coli bacteria. (Aleccia, 9/10)

A growing body of research shows loneliness has profound implications for physical and mental health. People who are socially disconnected have a 29% higher risk of heart disease, a 32% greater risk of stroke and a 50% increased risk of dementia for older adults. Loneliness can increase the risk of premature death as much as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, according to a recent advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy's office. The country is contending with an "epidemic of loneliness," according to that report — and the medicine to treat the problem is social connection. (Dayal McCluskey, 9/11)

Jessica Jensen always thought of herself as a healthy enough person. The Silicon Valley executive ate well and worked out once a week — all while juggling a job managing 500 people and her daughter, a soon-to-be middle-schooler. But in spring 2021, she heard about Prenuvo, a boutique clinic offering a “full-body MRI.” While MRIs are typically used to diagnose a particular problem, Prenuvo touts the service as a routine preventive measure, like a colonoscopy or a mammogram. Jensen was intrigued, and her husband persuaded her to try the scan on the eve of her 50th birthday. The day after the scan, which cost $2,499 out of pocket, a Prenuvo nurse called to tell Jensen the MRI had detected a hard-looking two millimeter cyst on her pancreas. Doctors confirmed her fears: She had stage 1 pancreatic cancer. (Dwoskin, 9/10)

Electrolyte supplements have become a shockingly big market in Austin, even though they're supported by limited scientific evidence. Although influencers and marketers consider electrolyte powders hydration hacks, doctors say that regularly drinking them instead of plain water is a waste of money. (Mallenbaum and Hurt, 9/8)

Dr. Richard W. Moriarty, a retired pediatrician from Pittsburgh who helped create the bright green Mr. Yuk sticker that warns kids away from poisonous substances, has died. He was 83. ... Moriarty was involved in establishing and developing the Pittsburgh Poison Center, where he served as director. (9/8)

More than 500 California public schools are being audited by the state because they reported that more than 10% of their kindergarten or seventh-grade students were not fully vaccinated last school year. Schools that allow students to attend school without all their vaccinations are in jeopardy of losing funding. (Lambert, Willis and Xie, 9/10)

County officials have announced they are widening eligibility for the program, called MedAssist, begun last year to help middle-income earners pay for diabetes medications, EpiPens and asthma inhalers. It gives enrollees checks or direct deposits of $34 to $500 a month, with the amount depending on income, annual health care spending and medications. ... The program and its expansion helps fill a growing need as Americans struggle to shoulder the rising costs of prescription drugs. (Ho, 9/8)

Today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report authors published accounts of at least 27 cases of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) reported among hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail in August and September of 2022, suggesting a possible norovirus outbreak that sickened hikers who shared latrines and a cabin. ... "Twenty-one (95%) survey respondents who reported an onset date noted that they became ill within a 73-mile stretch of the Washington Pacific Crest Trail," the authors wrote. (Soucheray, 9/8)

Members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have backed overwhelmingly the adult use of marijuana on their tribal land, even as they await the opening of a dispensary for those who seek it for medicinal use. Unofficial results show that 70% of voters said “yes” Thursday in a referendum that opens the door to the western North Carolina reservation being the first location in the state where pot for recreational use can be legally purchased, news outlets reported. (9/8)

Inside an Austin high-rise north of the Texas Capitol in August, tearful parents lined up for a state health commission meeting to beg agency officials not to increase caretaking wages. It would backfire, they said. They would lose their livelihoods. (Bohra, 9/11)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Montana State Officials Seek More Control Over Judicial Involuntary Commitments

Inside the white-brick hallways of the Flathead County Detention Center, Jail Commander Jen Root walked up to a steel door with a small window and pointed inside. “She’s been here almost a year, just laying on her bed,” she said. Inside the cell, dimly lit by a single window, a woman was curled up under a fleece blanket, only her bright-pink fingernails sticking out. This woman was charged with burglary in September 2022, Root said. An evaluation after her arrest determined that mental illness prevented her from standing trial and that she required treatment at the Montana State Hospital, the state-run inpatient psychiatric hospital. (Bolton, 9/11)

A government watchdog for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the agency has failed to adequately enforce benzene emission standards at refineries, singling out the former Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) refinery, which continued to exceed emissions standards two years after a 2019 explosion and fire caused it to close. PES in South Philadelphia was cited as a case study for lax enforcement in a report this week by the EPA’s Office of Inspector General that called on the agency to “enhance oversight” to ensure refineries comply with benzene fence-line monitoring regulations. (Kummer, 9/8)

The Environmental Protection Agency is not doing enough to rein in benzene pollution billowing from oil refineries, the agency's Inspector General said in a report released this week. ... Benzene is a known carcinogen and can, in high concentrations, cause acute health problems such as dizziness and headaches. The report calls on the EPA to do more to monitor facilities that regularly exceed benchmarks and ensure adjustments are made. (Drane, 9/8)

Heat and drought are slow disasters, ones we don’t jump to respond to, like we do for a hurricane or a tornado. The destruction is piecemeal—a buckled road here, a broken water main there, water tables and aquifers that aren’t filling as fast as we drain them. In this kind of disaster, bodies are damaged and lives are lost each day, day after day. (Megha Satyanarayana, 9/8)

Even now, 22 years later, the death toll from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, continues to climb. Even this long after the last embers were extinguished and the acrid smoke of three crash sites settled on now-sacred soil, the dying goes on. First responders continue to succumb to certain cancers and respiratory ailments connected to their heroism on that day and connected to their work in the weeks and months after the horror. Every one of these fresh victims, many falling after years of fierce battles with illness, leaves friends and family who also become victims of that deadly day, the day that hasn’t stopped killing. (Frank Figliuzzi, 9/11)

Over the past two decades, India emerged as the “pharmacy of the developing world,” the leading manufacturer of generic drugs and medicines, producing more than 20 percent of the world’s supply. This has helped to make a range of medicines available to poor patients around the world who previously had to do without. (Vidya Krishnan, 9/11)

This summer, disability rights advocates sued California over its so-called End of Life Options Act. Under this 2016 law, assisted suicide is available to persons deemed terminally ill with less than six months to live. But, as argued in the lawsuit, the act violates the legal rights of disabled Californians and worsens the dehumanization they already face. (Lisa Blumberg, 9/11)

We like to think we understand the drugs we take, especially after rigorous trials have proved their efficacy and safety. But sometimes, we know only that medications work; we just don’t know why. (Aaron E. Carroll, 9/9)

Israeli doctors are bracing for a fight. On Sept. 12, the Israeli Supreme Court is set to hear challenges to a core component of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul — and he has refused to commit to abide by the ruling. Thousands of Israeli doctors have announced they will go on strike if Netanyahu chooses to ignore an adverse ruling. (Mical Raz and Naftali Kaminski, 9/11)