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Merck & Co.’s Covid-19 pill is giving rise to new mutations of the virus in some patients, according to a study that underscores the risk of trying to intentionally alter the pathogen’s genetic code. Some researchers worry the drug may create more contagious or health-threatening variations of Covid, which has killed more than 6.8 million people globally over the past three years. (Lauerman, 2/1)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday removed the need for a positive test for COVID-19 treatments from Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co Inc. Pfizer's Paxlovid and Merck's Lagevrio pills were given emergency use authorizations in Dec. 2021 for patients with mild-to-moderate COVID who tested positive for the virus, and who were at risk of progressing to severe COVID. Still, the FDA said the patients should have a current diagnosis of mild-to-moderate COVID infection. (2/1)

More on the spread of covid —

Nearly three years after it became the first county in the nation to declare COVID-19 a public health emergency, Santa Clara County announced Wednesday a plan to transition out of the emergency phase of the pandemic by the end of February. That includes the closure of all the county-run mass vaccination and testing sites. Residents of the Bay Area’s most populous county will be directed instead to private health care providers, pharmacies or local clinics. (Vaziri, 2/1)

California will drop its plan to require schoolchildren to get vaccinated against COVID-19 once the state’s pandemic state of emergency order ends on Feb. 28. “We continue to strongly recommend COVID-19 immunization for students and staff to keep everyone safer in the classroom,” the California Department of Public Health said in an email to EdSource, confirming the change. (Vaziri, 2/1)

“Anything is possible,” Fauci said. “One cannot predict, exactly, what the likelihood (is) of getting yet again another variant that’s so different that it eludes the protection that we have from the vaccines and from prior infection.” He noted that each omicron sublineage appears to be progressively better at eluding immune response developed by the vaccines and prior infection. (Vaziri, 2/1)

Governments may have to reserve drugs and vaccines for the World Health Organization to distribute in poorer countries to avoid a repeat of the "catastrophic failure" during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an early draft of a global pandemic agreement. One of the most concrete proposals in the draft accord reviewed by Reuters on Wednesday includes a measure to reserve 20% of any tests, vaccines or treatments developed for use in poorer countries. (Rigby and Tetrault-Farber, 2/2)

On the end of the emergency declaration —

Public school districts that received a windfall of COVID relief funds for mental health services are confronting a new dilemma: How to sustain counseling, screenings, teletherapy and other programs when the money runs out. (Moreno, 2/2)

“There’s a lot of wait-and-see,” said Jose Francisco Figueroa, assistant professor of health policy and management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. When it comes to Medicaid programs, which were allowed to eliminate copays and waive certain requirements, “there’s still wiggle room on what the state can decide to keep versus not to keep,” Figueroa said. Massachusetts has long had a generous Medicaid program, called MassHealth, he noted. (Freyer, 2/1)

KHN: As Pandemic-Era Medicaid Provisions Lapse, Millions Approach A Coverage Cliff 
States are preparing to remove millions of people from Medicaid as protections put in place early in the covid-19 pandemic expire. The upheaval, which begins in April, will put millions of low-income Americans at risk of losing health coverage, threatening their access to care and potentially exposing them to large medical bills. It will also put pressure on the finances of hospitals, doctors, and others relying on payments from Medicaid, a state-federal program that covers lower-income people and people with disabilities. (Galewitz, 2/2)

Nearly 300,000 Tennesseans who enrolled in Medicaid during the COVID-19 pandemic are expected to lose their coverage this year now that state officials are once again allowed to bump people from the government-funded health insurance program. A spokesperson for TennCare, the state’s Medicaid program, said this week that no removals will occur until April 1, though she said in an email that the “redetermination process” will begin in March. (Kruesi, 2/1)

The number of government employees teleworking increased rapidly amid the pandemic. According to a CBS News review of data and reports from the Office Of Personnel Management (OPM), the number of government employees who teleworked increased from roughly 483,000 in 2018 to more than 1 million by 2021. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, argued the legislation “offers a much-needed solution to this problem of federal agencies and federal employees putting their own comfort before our constituents’ needs.” (Schnell, 2/1)

Twenty Republican state attorneys general sent a letter to U.S-based pharmacy chains Walgreens and CVS on Wednesday, telling both companies their plans to distribute abortion pills through the mail are “both unsafe and illegal.” In the letter, the coalition wrote that federal law prohibits anyone from using the mail to send or receive any drug that will “be used or applied for producing abortion,” referring to the Comstock Act of 1873. (Oshin, 2/1)

In other abortion news from Texas, Nebraska, West Virginia, and Kentucky —

A case before a federal judge in Texas could dramatically alter abortion access in the United States – at least as much, some experts say, as the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision last year, which overturned decades of abortion-rights precedent. (McCammon, 2/1)

The Nebraska Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee took nearly eight hours of testimony Wednesday before adjourning without a vote on whether to advance a bill that would outlaw abortion at a point before many women know they’re pregnant. Hundreds of people crowded the halls of the state Capitol for a committee hearing on a so-called heartbeat bill. The bill would ban abortions once cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo, which is generally around the sixth week of pregnancy. (Beck, 2/2)

West Virginia's only abortion clinic and the clinic's primary doctor on Wednesday filed a lawsuit challenging the near-total abortion ban passed by the state last year, saying it violates patients' constitutional rights. In their complaint in the Charleston, West Virginia federal court, Women's Health Center of West Virginia and the doctor, identified as John Doe, are asking the court for an immediate order blocking enforcement of the law while the case goes forward. (Pierson, 2/1)

At 52, Susan Rames was looking for a way to give back. She worked part-time at a Kentucky hospital as a postpartum nurse and, with her three children nearly grown, she had some extra time during the week. Motivated by her Christian faith, Rames decided to volunteer at ALC Pregnancy Resource Center, a crisis pregnancy center whose mission is to discourage people from seeking abortions. (Morel, 2/2)

Gun homicides, including mass shootings, are a pervasive and horrific issue, and we have rightly focused attention on reducing them. But a majority of gun deaths, 54 percent, in the U.S. aren’t homicides, they’re suicides. Indeed, as the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence puts it, suicide is “the untold story of gun violence in America.” Both suicides and gun deaths have increased over the last two decades, and there is a strong link between firearms and suicide deaths. Suicide-by-gun makes up most of both gun deaths and overall suicide deaths (over half of each). (Kelly, 2/1)

In other news about gun violence —

The funeral of Tyre Nichols, a Black man who died after being beaten by police officers in Memphis, Tenn., was marked by emotion, music and a renewed call for justice on Wednesday, including by Vice President Kamala Harris. “This is a family that lost their son and their brother through an act of violence, at the hands and the feet of people who had been charged with keeping them safe,” Harris said at the service in Memphis. (Olander, 2/1)

A Metro employee who tried to stop a gunman targeting commuters Wednesday was fatally shot on a D.C. train station platform in a shooting rampage that injured three others, halted rail service for hours and again left residents unsettled as the city continues to confront gun violence. Police said the gunman appeared to select his victims randomly near the end of the morning rush hour. The attack started on a Metrobus traveling from Maryland and ended underground on the platform of the Potomac Avenue Metro station in Southeast Washington. (Mettler and George, 2/1)

You’ve probably heard these three words – run, hide, fight. The tactics from the FBI, echoed to law enforcement agencies across the country, have been used for decades to teach civilians their options if confronted by an active shooter: evacuate the area, find a place to hide, or – as a last resort – take action against the shooter. More and more, though, engaging the gunman may prove more effective than the other choices, CNN National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem said, with at least one US community shifting away from the “hide” piece in lieu of more active defensive steps. (Gingras, Kapp and Ly, 1/31)

Last week brought a relentless wave of horrific news events: two California mass shootings two days apart, the release of video footage showing Memphis police officers’ violent beating of Tyre Nichols, and the release of a body-cam recording showing an intruder’s attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul in the couple’s San Francisco home. Each incident was disturbing, and in some cases exacerbated the stress many communities — including Asian American and Pacific Islanders, Black Americans and migrant workers — have already experienced as instances of anti-Asian violence and police brutality gained in visibility during the last few years. (Ho, 2/1)

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a New Jersey law that allowed the state to sue gun manufacturers for creating a “public nuisance” with their sale and marketing of firearms. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed the law in June to create a path for suing companies engaged in the sale, manufacture, distribution, importing or marketing of gun-related products for a public nuisance, defined as conduct that interferes with the public’s rights. (Gans, 2/1)

House Natural Resources Committee Republicans on Wednesday defeated Rep. Jared Huffman’s (D-Calif.) push to reinstate an explicit ban on carrying firearms to the committee room after a lengthy and occasionally heated debate. The panel’s chair, Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), repeatedly declined to clarify, under questioning from Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Huffman, whether he interpreted House rules as barring firearms from committee rooms. Multiple Democrats contended that different members have various interpretations of the House rules, but Westerman referred their questions to the Administration Committee, which sets the chamber’s internal standards. (Adragna, 2/1)

Medicare Advantage insurers could face an average 2.3% cut to baseline payments in 2024, the Biden administration said Wednesday. If the proposal stands, it would be a net cut of more than $3 billion to the industry. The major reason behind the proposed pay cut: Medicare officials want to update data and coding systems that are used to explain the health conditions of an insurance company’s enrollees. Under that new system, insurers would not get paid as much for members with certain diagnoses. (Herman, 2/1)

Medicare Advantage rates will rise by 2.09% next year, in line with expectations, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced in a notice published Wednesday. The advance notice includes a number of provisions, such as revisions to Medicare Advantage risk-adjustment and changes to the star ratings programs for Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D. CMS also laid out its plan to implement provisions from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. (Berryman, 2/1)

Medicare Advantage plans are expected to receive a 1.03% increase in revenue under the 2024 Advance Notice for the Medicare Advantage and Part D Prescription Drug Programs released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Wednesday. CMS is proposing technical updates to the MA risk adjustment model by fully transitioning to the Internal Classification of Diseases from ICD-9 to ICD-10. The latter has been in use since 2015. It also updates underlying fee-for-service data years from 2014 diagnoses and 2015 expenditures to 2018 diagnoses and 2019 expenditures. (Morse, 2/1)

In updates on the debt ceiling talks —

Speaker Kevin McCarthy left his first White House visit with confidence that he and President Joe Biden could negotiate a spending deal, but the real test may come in negotiations with his own Republican conference. McCarthy, who had to bargain with hardline conservatives to win his speaker bid after 15 rounds of voting, leads a fractious caucus where some members are willing to gamble with the nation's credit score and global economy to try and get the federal spending cuts they want. But what those cuts are, nobody seems to know. (Woodall, 2/1)

Sen. Josh Hawley introduced a bill Wednesday to prevent Congress from using Social Security and Medicare as a tool in negotiations over the debt ceiling, as some members of his party have talked about making changes to the programs. “These are key programs that, frankly, every American relies on,” said Hawley, a Missouri Republican. “They pay into it and every American expects when they retire, that they will be able to collect that Social Security benefit they paid into and also the Medicare health care benefit that they had paid into.” (Desrochers, 2/1)

In other Medicare news —

Humana Inc. said it needs more details to gauge the impact of a new Medicare policy that threatens to claw back billions from health insurers, but investors have decided it’s not nearly as bad as they feared. (Tozzi, 2/1)

Humana said its individual enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans would jump by “at least 625,000” for 2023 in what is becoming a banner year for the popular privatized health insurance for U.S. seniors. The projection for Medicare Advantage growth was included in Humana’s fourth quarter earnings report released Wednesday that included a $15 million loss thanks in part to costs of investments made last year to improve its health plan operations. Revenues rose to $22.4 billion in the fourth quarter on Medicare Advantage growth and higher premiums compared to $21 billion in the year-ago period. (Japsen, 2/1)

A new year means changes to Medicare, including updated premiums and deductibles and sometimes big policy moves. In 2023, there’s a little of everything: Some costs have gone down, others have increased, and there are some notable tweaks to how Medicare works. Understanding what’s new can help you get the most from your Medicare benefits. Here are some key 2023 updates, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (Ashford, 2/2)

The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday accused GoodRx, the prescription drug discount platform, of sharing sensitive personal information about its users’ prescriptions and health conditions with big tech companies. (Ravindranath, 2/1)

On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission made history by enforcing, for the first time, its power to go after companies that don’t notify consumers about health data breaches. The agency said it will fine GoodRx $1.5 million for sharing its users’ private health information with data brokers and advertising platforms such as Facebook and Google. To one of the commissioners, though, that’s chump change. (Trang, 2/1)

In other pharmaceutical developments —

A new warning from the Food and Drug Administration urges consumers to beware of marketers attempting to sell illegal and unproven mpox "medication" and "cures" in order to swindle scared, vulnerable people and bilk them out of their money. The agency also shared a series of pictures of the alleged illegal products for sale. (Pezenik, 2/2)

The maker of the popular weight loss drug Wegovy said Wednesday that it is ramping up production of the drug, which has been in short supply in pharmacies across the United States. The drug faced widespread shortages last year due to its increasing popularity, executives for drugmaker Novo Nordisk, said on a call with investors Wednesday. (Lovelace Jr., 2/1)

Starting March 1, Bayer and EMD will only offer 340B drug discounts to hospitals and their affiliates registered as 340B-covered entities, the companies said in letters to customers. The decisions make Bayer and EMD two of around 20 companies that restrict 340B discounts distributed through outside pharmacies. (Kacik, 2/1)

Inferior vena cava filters are supposed to save lives. The spider-like devices catch blood clots before they can travel up to the lung and cause deadly pulmonary embolisms. But for over a decade, these devices have been dogged by questions about how well they work and the serious complications they can cause for patients. (Lawrence, 2/2)

Heather Klebon was weeding in her garden at her Delaware beach house when she felt a painful lump in her left breast on a summer afternoon in 2019.She would soon learn she had breast cancer. “My whole world stopped,” Klebon recalled. (Ruderman, 2/1)

For years, the treatment protocol for children with concussions involved keeping them out of school to rest in a quiet, dark room with reduced access to screens until they felt better. In the past decade, however, doctors have been moving toward encouraging kids to return to school and light activity after only a couple of days of rest, even if symptoms persist. A recently released study involving more than 1,500 children backs the new approach. It found that an early return to school — which researchers defined as missing less than three days — benefited children ages 8 to 18, who had less severe symptoms two weeks after their concussion compared with kids who stayed home longer. In fact, a longer stay at home seemed to delay recovery. (Chang, 2/1)

In other health and wellness news —

The year when a breast cancer patient turns 70 can make a big difference in the kind of treatment her doctor recommends, according to a study published in the International Journal for Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics. (Reed, 2/1)

A new study in mice from researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas suggests that a short-term exposure to a high-fat diet may be linked to pain sensations even in the absence of a prior injury or a preexisting condition like obesity or diabetes. (Fontenot, 2/1)

For more than a decade, Americans have been dying younger than people in other developed countries. Researchers attribute much of this rise in mid-life deaths to what are called "deaths of despair" — that is suicides, drug overdoses and deaths from alcoholic liver disease — among middle-aged white Americans. But a study published last week in The Lancet shows that these premature deaths have affected American Indian and Alaska Native communities far more than white communities. (Chatterjee, 2/1)

The Defense Department has acknowledged that sexual abuse and violence by instructors in the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps in schools across the country were much more pervasive than previously disclosed, according to new documents obtained by the Globe. (Kopan, 2/2)

Lindsay Clancy, 32, was hospitalized last week after she appeared to attempt suicide by jumping out a window of the family home after allegedly injuring her three children that led to their deaths, Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz said last week, as Fox News Digital reported earlier. (McGorry, 2/1)

Also —

Dangerous fungal infections are on the rise, and a growing body of research suggests warmer temperatures might be a culprit. The human body’s average temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit has long been too hot for most fungi to thrive, infectious-disease specialists say. But as temperatures have risen globally, some fungi might be adapting to endure more heat stress, including conditions within the human body, research suggests. Climate change might also be creating conditions for some disease-causing fungi to expand their geographical range, research shows. (Mosbergen, 2/1)

Conagra Brands has recalled almost 2.6 million pounds of canned meat and poultry products because of a packaging defect that may have caused the food to get contaminated, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says. (Singh, 2/1)

After 21 seasons, “Dr. Phil” is coming to an end so that the daytime TV host can expand his audience with another planned venture. In a Wednesday statement, CBS Media Ventures and host Dr. Phil McGraw said that the daytime TV star wants to expand his audience in a new venture, as he has “grave concerns for the American family.” (Saad, 2/1)

Students will be able to carry Narcan, a nasal spray that can reverse an opioid overdose, in Los Angeles Unified schools under a soon-to-be-updated policy. The move, announced to school board members in a message from Supt. Alberto M. Carvalho, comes amid continued alarm about the dangers of illicit fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that has been consumed unknowingly by teens in counterfeit pills that look like Xanax or OxyContin. (Alpert Reyes, 2/1)

Republican lawmakers in Tennessee on Wednesday continued to block Democratic lawmakers from questioning the newly appointed health czar’s contentious decision to forgo nearly $9 million in federal funding designed to prevent and treat HIV. Earlier this month, news broke that Tennessee would walk away from the funding at the end of May after state officials initially attempted to oust Planned Parenthood from the program in November amid Republican furor over the group’s long promotion of abortion access and transgender health care. Abortion is currently banned in Tennessee while Republicans are pushing to prohibit gender-affirming care to minors. (Kruesi, 2/1)

Health care providers in New Hampshire are pushing for a major increase in Medicaid rates this year, saying it would help them address increasingly dire staff shortages. During a hearing Wednesday, health care leaders told lawmakers that the reimbursement they receive from the state’s Medicaid program often falls short of what it actually costs to provide care. That makes it hard to pay competitive wages, at a time when organizations across the health care sector are struggling to fill vacancies. (Cuno-Booth, 2/2)

Every morning when Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram goes into the office in Arlington, Virginia, she walks by walls covered in photos of people of all genders, ages and races. She passes by portraits of more than 4,800 faces — all of people who died as a result of the synthetic opioid fentanyl. (Crumpler, 2/2)

Osceola Community Health Services will add a mobile unit this year fitted for seniors who need dentures. Last week, the Osceola County Commission signaled support for a $300,000 grant to build a mobile denture unit. Commission Chair Viviana Janer said the trailer, coming in about six months, will bring low-cost dentures to seniors in far-flung neighborhoods, like Holopaw in eastern Osceola. (Byrnes, 2/1)

Also —

A report from the Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals says the mistaken death declaration occurred on Jan. 3 after a staff member at the Glen Oaks Alzheimer's Special Care Center reported that the woman, 66, had died about 6 a.m. The report said the woman, who had early onset dementia, anxiety and depression, had been in hospice care since Dec. 28. (Block, 2/1)

For nearly two weeks after a late December snowstorm that left 7 inches of snow on the ground in Denver, when Julie Reiskin needed to leave her home in the Clayton neighborhood, she had to roll her wheelchair down the middle of busy streets and then station herself in the street to flag down a public bus. That experience, she said, was “terrifying.” And it was due to Denver’s snow plowing protocol. (McCoy, 1/30)

When Arleta Ramirez’s daughter was born in July, there was no question what the girl’s diet would be. Breastmilk is endorsed by the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics, which cites “unequivocal evidence” it protects newborns from disease. Ramirez was also a breastfeeding veteran — she’d breastfed her son for two years. However, Ramirez’s plan — and her daughter’s food supply — soon ran into an unforeseen obstacle: a custody dispute. (Moyer, 2/1)

New York’s governor has vetoed a bill that would have allowed wrongful death lawsuits to include claims for emotional damage, a change that could have led to much bigger payouts for fatal accidents and deadly medical errors. The bill, which had strong bipartisan support when it passed the Legislature last year, would have brought New York into line with a majority of other states that allow courts to consider emotional pain when calculating how much a lost life was worth. (Khan, 1/31)

An ex-gynecologist convicted of sexually abusing hundreds of patients was ordered to spend the next two months in jail as he awaits sentencing, a federal judge in New York City ruled Wednesday. After hearing statements from some of the victims during the bail hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman tersely shot down defense attorneys seeking to allow the doctor, Robert Hadden, to remain free while awaiting an April sentencing hearing. ... Hadden had worked at two prestigious Manhattan hospitals — Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital — until complaints about his attacks shut down his career a decade ago. (2/2)

The new Democratic leadership team in Congress is pretty much the New York hospital lobby’s dream team. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has long been an ally of the Greater New York Hospital Association, often pushing for more funding for teaching slots at hospitals. He goes back decades with the lobby’s CEO, Kenneth Raske. And new House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is another New Yorker representing a Brooklyn district, though he has a less robust record on health care. (Cohrs, 2/2)

In other health care industry news —

Federal regulators gave San Francisco’s Laguna Honda nursing home a last-minute reprieve on Wednesday from a potential demand to resume transferring its frail residents from the facility as soon as Thursday. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services informed Laguna Honda on Wednesday that it had granted the hospital’s request for a delay until May 19. The notice came one day before the deadline patient advocates had dreaded, believing it would be a live or die moment in time — literally. (Asimov, 2/1)

When Brittany Goodpaster gives birth in June, she’ll have a very different experience than the one she imagined. Goodpaster had hoped to deliver her baby at the Luminis Anne Arundel Medical Center birthing center in Annapolis where midwives assist women with natural births. The center, opened in 1997, is designed to look like a bedroom rather than a hospital room. A bathtub, bed, play space for kids, large exercise ball and other amenities were available to the women who had their babies there. Earlier this week, Luminis closed the birthing center after 26 years of operation due to the low number of births there in the past several years. (Munro, 2/2)

Seven months ago, California battled its second widespread infectious disease outbreak in as many years — mpox, formerly referred to as monkeypox. Cases spread exponentially, primarily among the state’s male LGBTQ population, and officials struggled to roll out limited vaccine supplies from the federal government. Community clinics and LGBTQ health centers opened mass mpox vaccination sites as quickly as possible and clamored for assistance from local and legislative leaders, but oftentimes red tape at both the federal and state level hampered a speedy response. (Hwang, 1/31)

Denetria Thompson remembers her first cesarean section all too well. During a pregnancy checkup 10 years ago, Thompson’s doctor scheduled her for induced labor. She was 38 weeks pregnant, and her doctor told her she could deliver early if she wanted to. A week later, Thompson anxiously walked into Missouri Baptist Hospital at 9 a.m. ready to deliver her little girl. (Henderson, 2/2)

Also —

Former President Trump, in a video released Tuesday on his social media platform, vowed to punish doctors who provide gender-affirming health care to minors if he is reelected next year, wading into a contentious debate that has captured the attention of state and federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. In the nearly four-minute-long, straight-to-camera video, Trump outlined his plan to “protect children from left-wing gender insanity,” unveiling a slate of extreme policy proposals targeting transgender identities, including a federal law that recognizes only two genders and bars transgender women from competing on women’s sports teams. (Migdon, 2/1)

A Canadian province on Tuesday decriminalized the possession of small amounts of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and other hard drugs in a radical policy shift to address an opioid overdose crisis that has killed thousands. Adults found with up to 2.5 grams of these drugs, rather than face jail or fines, will be provided with information on how to access addiction treatment programs. Police will also not seize their drugs. (1/31)

The leaders of three of Europe’s biggest pharmaceutical companies say the continent risks becoming a less attractive market for innovative medicines. Austerity measures in the UK and other countries are causing “great concern” and European governments must take seriously the need to invest in the sector and prioritize health care, said Novartis AG Chief Executive Officer Vas Narasimhan during a conference call Wednesday. (Kresge, Pham and Kew, 2/1)

Japan is no longer the best-performing wealthy nation when it comes to avoiding COVID-19 deaths, according to a report published Wednesday by Japan Times. A surge of omicron infections this winter has overwhelmed its health system and caused the country’s biggest outbreak of cases since the start of the pandemic. (Vaziri, 2/1)

Also —

A case of mad cow disease discovered on a farm in the Netherlands is the old age variant that is not dangerous to public health, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday. The infection was found in a dead cow on Jan. 30 in the South Holland province of the Netherlands. (2/1)

The UK is still "a long way" from being in a situation where bird flu could infect humans and spread in a similar way to Covid-19, an expert from the Animal and Plant Health Agency (Apha) has said. (Kirby, 2/2)

A researcher is one step closer to demonstrating the potential of a brain molecule called fractalkine to halt and even reverse the effects of multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases. (University of Alberta, 2/1)

A pilot study conducted at three New York City healthcare facilities identified patients with risk factors for Candida auris colonization, researchers with the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) reported yesterday in the American Journal of Infection Control. (Dall, 2/1)

Paradigm, a New York-based clinical trial tech platform, raised $203 million in Series A funding and acquired an oncology patient recruitment startup called Deep Lens. Clinical trial recruitment is a costly bottleneck for drug development, yet many patients struggle to access relevant trials. Thus a new class of matchmaking infrastructure startups like Paradigm, whose outsized bankroll could help it quickly catch rivals. (Primack, 1/30)

Researchers have combined low-power chip design, machine learning algorithms, and soft implantable electrodes to produce a neural interface that can identify and suppress symptoms of various neurological disorders. (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, 1/30)

Last week, Amazon injected itself further into the healthcare space by launching a new prescription drug program. Called RxPass, the service allows Amazon Prime members to fill prescriptions from a list of roughly 50 generic medications for a flat fee of $5 per month. (Elaine Parker, 1/31)

The truth is, doctors aren’t taught much about nutrition or weight management, and the lack of education means that the fatphobia that persists outside the clinic is amplified within it. And the consequences are dire: In my short time as a physician, I have taken care of several patients who went to their doctors with symptoms that warranted a standard work-up, but instead they were dismissed and told to lose weight. (Shirlene Obuobi, MD, 2/1)

The Food and Drug Administration vowed to make big changes to its food safety teams after the 2022 infant formula crisis exposed deep flaws in the agency’s culture, technology and structure. On Tuesday, the FDA finally revealed its fix: creating a new deputy commissioner for human foods. This is a major disappointment. (2/1)

The deaths of nearly 30 children under the age of 15 years from invasive strep A infections in the United Kingdom between September 2022 and January 2023, together with a rise in new invasive strep A infections in that country, made headlines around the world. In Kenya, about 100 children aged 5 and younger died from invasive strep A infections over the same period — which did not make headlines. (Dylan D. Barth and Mark E. Engel, 2/2)

China’s massive Covid-19 crisis, sparked in part by the country’s rolling back its strict zero-Covid policies in early December, has seen millions of people infected with SARS-CoV-2. Making the problem worse is that supplies of name-brand Covid-19 drugs are few and far between, and generics of these drugs won’t be available in China due to failed manufacturer negotiations. (Cathy Tie, 2/2)

A federal judge recently ruled against the University of Maryland Medical System in finding that it discriminated against a transgender Baltimore man, Jesse Hammons, by refusing to perform a hysterectomy that was recommended by his physician to treat gender dysphoria. (Rachel Box, 2/1)