�鶹Ů��

Anthony S. Fauci defended himself Monday against claims that he orchestrated a coverup of the coronavirus pandemic’s origins, with the former government official rejecting some allegations as “simply preposterous.” The prominent infectious-disease expert, who served as a senior leader at the National Institutes of Health for four decades before leaving government at the end of 2022, said Republicans have distorted emails between himself and other scientists as they discussed whether a laboratory leak of the coronavirus was possible. (Diamond, 6/3)

Grilled about comments he made in January about a protocol that people maintain a distance of 6 feet from one another, Fauci said that the policy had been developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, not his agency. He said that when he said in January that he wasn’t aware of studies supporting the 6-foot rule, he meant that he wasn’t aware of formal clinical trials. (McKay, 6/3)

The longtime government scientist made no effort to hide his dismay when grilled on various conspiracy theories or unfounded claims about his actions regarding COVID-19. And the hearing was marked by some chaotic moments, involving both the House members and Fauci critics in the audience. Here are some takeaways from the hearing. (Choi, 6/3)

The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to President Biden appeared emotional as he told a Republican-led House panel that the repeated threats he and his family have faced since the pandemic began were "very troublesome." During his testimony, Greene repeatedly berated Fauci and refused to address him with the honorific "doctor," instead referring to him as "Mr. Fauci." "You're not doctor," she said. "You're Mr. Fauci in my few minutes." (Rubin, 6/4)

MDMA is the first Schedule I psychedelic to be considered by the FDA — meaning that, if it’s approved, it would no longer meet the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Schedule I definition of having “no medical benefit.” After years of excitement and conversation about the potential for psychedelics to treat mental illness, this is a huge moment for the field and the burgeoning multibillion-dollar psychedelics industry. The discussion will start at 8:30 a.m. ET and run until about 5:30 p.m. (Goldhill and Keshavan, 6/4)

Rick Doblin first dreamed of the therapeutic potential of the psychedelic drug MDMA in a hippie house in downtown Santa Cruz, in an era when fears of bad trips and ruined lives loomed large in the public imagination. On Tuesday, 38 years later, his vision will go before a U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s advisory committee of medical experts who will make a recommendation about whether the drug, when combined with talk therapy, should be a legal part of modern medicine. (Krieger, 6/3)

The report notes that it is not easy to conduct research into psychedelics because it is difficult to obscure which participants are receiving a placebo and which are receiving the active drug because of the unmistakable effects of psychoactive drugs. As a result, most of the study subjects correctly guessed which group they were in, according to a review of the research released by the FDA on Friday. Without proper blinding, the findings can be skewed by participants or researchers, many of whom see strong promise in the therapeutic potential of the compounds. (Herrington, 6/4)

Canada has licensed a startup to export psychedelics to Australia for patient use, the latest milestone in a contest to supply the potential growth of medical psychedelic drugs. Canada’s health department awarded a drug establishment license to Optimi Health Corp., a spokeswoman for the company said, allowing it to ship pills containing the magic-mushroom extract psilocybin and MDMA — controlled and otherwise-illegal substances — to a provider in Australia. (Seal, 6/3)

Two chickens at a live bird market in San Francisco tested positive for H5N1 avian flu last month, authorities announced Monday. The San Francisco Department of Public Health reported that state health officials discovered the infected, asymptomatic birds during a routine monitoring program conducted by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The testing comes amid the current national bird flu outbreak. (Vaziri, 6/3)

The second bird flu outbreak in a week was reported Sunday, with nearly 103,000 turkeys infected in northwest Iowa’s Cherokee County. The Iowa Department of Agriculture reported Tuesday, May 28 that an egg facility with 4.2 million laying hens was infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza. (Eller, 6/2)

Michigan has become ground zero for the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus that's sweeping the nation, killing turkeys, chickens and wild birds, infecting cows and other mammals – and now has sickened a third U.S. farmworker. The Great Lakes state has more dairy cattle herds known to be infected with avian influenza than any other state in the U.S., with 24 outbreaks in 10 counties as of Friday, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It now also has two farmworkers with confirmed bird flu infections – transmitted to them by close contact with sick cows. (Jordan Shamus, 6/3)

WastewaterSCAN, a national wastewater monitoring system based at Stanford University in partnership with Emory University, today launched an H5 avian influenza wastewater dashboard today, which shows detections at about a dozen locations, mostly in Texas and Michigan. (Schnirring, 6/3)

For more than 160 years, pasteurization has been heralded as one of the most effective and efficient forms of ensuring public food safety. But as health officials scramble to ascertain and contain the spread of bird flu in the nation’s dairy cattle, a growing number of state governments are turning their back on this gold standard of public health. In the last four weeks, Iowa, Louisiana and Delaware have either passed legislation or are in the process of moving bills that would legalize the commercial sale of raw milk for human consumption within their borders. (Rust, 6/4)

In the recent H5N1 outbreak in cows and infections in humans, viruses that got into workers’ eyes may have bound to receptors in the conjunctiva, the clear membrane that covers the inside of the eyelid and the white of the eye and protects the eye. Influenza viruses bind to what are called sialic acid receptors. The accepted wisdom suggests that avian flu viruses preferentially bind to one type of sialic acid receptor predominant in birds, whereas human seasonal flu viruses bind to another type of sialic acid receptor predominant in the human respiratory tract, says Patrik Ellström, an infection medicine researcher at Sweden’s Uppsala University. But recent research suggests the picture is more complicated; both receptor types have now been found in the respiratory tracts of humans and birds. (Lewis, 6/3)

LaVie Care Centers, which operates 43 skilled nursing facilities across five states, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sunday. The Atlanta-based company listed between $500 million and $1 billion in assets and between $1 billion and $10 billion in liabilities in its filing made in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Northern District of Georgia. (Eastabrook, 6/3)

Cigna’s Evernorth Care Group will lay off 261 employees in Arizona, part of a plan to cut some specialty care services and focus on integrated primary care. Evernorth also will close multiple locations as it evolves to meet patient needs, a Cigna spokesperson said. The company notified the state Friday of the pending layoffs. (Berryman, 6/3)

Struggling Pennsylvania hospital chain Tower Health plans to exchange current debt and raise additional funds as it pursues a turnaround. The system, trustee and bondholders of about $992 million in debt are supporting an exchange of “substantially all” existing bonds, according to a May 31 agreement that Tower Health disclosed in a filing Monday. The system also plans on selling $142.5 million of new municipal bonds for working capital. The finalized agreement will close in August, according to a spokesperson for Tower Health. (Coleman-Lochner, 6/3)

With cash-depleted Steward Health Care set to run out of money by June 14, a bankruptcy judge Monday granted it permission to offer financial sweeteners to a new lender that would fund Steward’s operations while it prepares to sell its hospitals and doctors group. Steward, which filed for bankruptcy on May 6, is scrambling to line up at least $225 million in new financing by early next week after its initial bankruptcy lender, Medical Properties Trust, said it wasn’t prepared to provide more than the $75 million it ponied up last month. (Weisman, 6/3)

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center acquired Pennsylvania's Washington Health System on Saturday. The nonprofit health systems signed a definitive agreement to merge in October, after first announcing plans in June 2023. UPMC has committed to invest at least $300 million over the next decade into Washington's two hospitals, now UPMC Washington and UPMC Greene, to upgrade facilities and support clinical services, according to a Saturday news release. (Hudson, 6/3)

Ardent Health is planning an initial public offering for a second time and could seek to raise $400 million or more, according to people familiar with the matter. The hospital operator confidentially submitted its IPO registration to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an IPO that would value Ardent at about $5 billion and perhaps more, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. (Tan and Or, 6/3)

A woman who had surgery at the Cleveland Clinic’s Medina Hospital to treat her thyroid cancer was awake for a portion of the procedure because doctors failed to properly administer her anesthesia, according to a lawsuit filed last week. Paige Horton was in tears as she told doctors after the procedure that she heard and felt surgeons operating on her throat, the lawsuit said. Staff members discovered that tubing on her IV had come loose, leaking fluid that should have flowed into her veins, according to the filing. (Shaffer, 6/3)

Johnson & Johnson must pay $260 million to an Oregon woman who said she got mesothelioma, a deadly cancer linked to asbestos exposure, from inhaling the company's talc powder, a jury found on Monday. The verdict in the 4th Judicial District Circuit Court in Portland comes as the company continues to pursue a proposed $6.48 billion settlement of most talc-related lawsuits against it through a prepackaged bankruptcy. The jury's award includes $60 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages, and includes damages for both the plaintiff and her husband. (Pierson, 6/3)

The pharmaceutical industry has filed at least four lawsuits this year challenging state laws requiring drugmakers to offer discounts on drugs dispensed by third-party pharmacies that contract with hospitals and clinics serving low-income populations. The most recent lawsuits were filed Friday by Novartis and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the largest U.S. drug industry group, in West Virginia federal court, over a law enacted in that state in March. (Pierson, 6/3)

A Florida appeals panel has ruled that the Delaware attorney general can resume a decades-old claim that her state was shortchanged the cash promised in the will of wealthy industrialist Alfred I. duPont. When industrialist Alfred I. duPont died in 1935, his will directed setting aside money to provide medical care to children and seniors, resulting in Nemours pediatric hospitals and facilities in Florida and other states. (Saunders, 6/3)

Michelle Bean is drowning in batteries she doesn’t need. For two years, the batteries and electrode pads arrived each month at her home in West Boylston, Mass. In theory, they’re supposed to power a basic pain management device she ordered from a company called Zynex Medical in 2020. In reality, they sit in her closet, taking up an annoying amount of space. (Lawrence, 6/4)

One of the U.S. senators investigating private equity’s push into healthcare is now targeting Ascension Illinois, the nonprofit hospital system outsourcing a group of hospital workers to a private equity-backed staffing firm. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter today to Ascension Illinois CEO Polly Davenport expressing concerns about the organization’s deal to turn over its 110-person hospitalist practice to Atlanta-based SCP Health, following complaints to his office from unnamed whistleblowers. (Davis, 6/3)

A recent study by the nonprofit Physicians for a Healthy California reveals a growing number of minority female doctors are feeling burned out and leaving their field of work. Lupe Alonzo-Diaz, the president and CEO of Physicians For a Healthy California, said that nearly half—47%—of all women physicians of color said they felt burnout and were concerned about their wellbeing. That's a significant increase from the same study conducted in 2018. (Gonzalez, 6/3)

Nurses in Oregon are hopeful a state law will solidify staffing ratios, but nurses in states with similar laws say state health department enforcement is generally lacking. Hospitals in Oregon were required to meet staffing minimums as of June 1, joining health systems in California, Massachusetts and New York that must also adhere to staffing ratio mandates. These laws were championed by healthcare unions and, in some cases, supported by state hospital associations, but nurses say they aren’t the quickest or most effective ways to tackle understaffing. (Devereaux, 6/3)

The chief requirement: Nursing homes must have enough staff to provide each patient with 3.48 hours of direct care every day. Nursing home companies have raised concerns the mandate will cause financial strains. The federal government finalized a new rule in April that requires nursing homes in Florida and nationwide to comply with new staffing requirements. (Zaragovia, 6/3)

A workforce shortage is continuing to deeply rattle Wisconsin hospitals as demand for care increases, the number of providers thins, and the "silver tsunami" of aging baby boomers looms. That's the primary takeaway of the 2024 Wisconsin Health Care Workforce Report, which noted that nationally, every baby boomer will be older than 65 by 2030. Wisconsin's population already skews older than most states, with future retirees outnumbering young people by about 10%, according to the report. As those people age, their health care needs will likely rise. (Eilbert, 6/3)

Santa Clara County is on the path to launch a program later this year to aid caregivers looking to return to the workforce. But the genesis for the idea has been simmering in Board President Susan Ellenberg’s mind now for decades. The Caregiver Returnship Program, which county supervisors approved in 2022, aims to tackle an issue that was exacerbated by the pandemic as individuals left the workforce to care for children or other family members. But for those looking to return to work, gaps on a resume pose difficulties in finding employment again. (Hase, 6/3)

Advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will vote whether to recommend that COVID-19 vaccines for 2024-25 should target the JN.1 variant, the most dominant this year, documents filed on Monday showed. ... The FDA's staff in separate documents said vaccine makers developing the new booster shots may need to consider targeting one of the JN.1 subvariants such as KP.2, as further evolution of the virus could take it away from the older strain. The documents were posted ahead of the advisers' meeting on Wednesday. The meeting was postponed from May 16. (6/3)

One new variant, KP.2, could lead the surge during the upcoming summer. This recently identified variant is mainly spreading in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, with rising levels in Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia. As of now, there have been 1,816 reported cases of KP.2 in the GISAID SARS-CoV-2 database, indicating that potentially thousands, if not tens of thousands, of individuals, have already been infected with this variant, as sequencing efforts have been significantly limited in recent years. (Haseltine, 5/31)

The American Red Cross wants to remind the public that receiving a COVID-19 vaccine does not make you ineligible to donate blood and blood donations from those who have been vaccinated for COVID-19 are safe for transfusion. The FDA permits individuals to donate blood with no wait period after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine as long as they are feeling well and symptom free, and the vaccine they received is one approved by the FDA for use in the US. (5/29)

Dr Sherri Tenpenny, a Cleveland doctor who told state legislators during the Covid-19 pandemic that vaccines caused people to become "magnetic," has been sued by the federal government for failing to pay $650,000 in taxes and late fees, investigators say. (Graziosi, 6/3)

Louisiana judges could order surgical castration for people convicted of sex crimes against young children under legislation approved Monday, and if Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signs it into law, the state apparently would be the first with such a punishment. The GOP-controlled Legislature passed the bill giving judges the option to sentence someone to surgical castration after the person has been convicted of certain aggravated sex crimes — including rape, incest and molestation — against a child under 13. (Cline, 6/3)

More states will receive Medicaid funding for all-in-one mental health and substance use clinics offering 24-hour crisis services.  The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Tuesday that a newish model of the clinic, called certified community behavioral health clinics, in 10 states will now be eligible to receive Medicaid reimbursements under the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Demonstration Program.  (O'Connell-Domenech, 6/4)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: �鶹Ů�� Health News' 'An Arm And A Leg': Medicaid Recipients Struggle To Stay Enrolled

In this episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” the show takes its first look at Medicaid. The program has dropped more than 22 million people since spring 2023, when covid-era protections ended. (Weissmann, 6/4)

Michigan health officials are urging residents to take precautions against mosquito bites after mosquitoes collected in Saginaw County tested positive for the Jamestown Canyon virus (JCV). The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says the mosquitoes were collected on May 22. They are the first infected mosquitoes detected in Michigan in 2024. (Buczek, 6/3)

New York plans to prohibit social-media companies from using algorithms to steer content to children without parental consent under a tentative agreement reached by state lawmakers, people familiar with the matter said. The legislation is aimed at preventing social-media companies from serving automated feeds to minors. Critics say the feeds lead children to violent and sexually explicit content. The bill, which is still being completed but expected to be voted on this week, also would prohibit platforms from sending minors notifications during overnight hours without parental consent. (Vielkind, 6/3)

When the Wisconsin Maternal Mortality Review Team examines the state’s pregnancy-related deaths, the cause is, more often than not, behavioral health conditions. In such cases, every death is preventable. ... That’s why, along with other federal Democratic lawmakers, they’ve introduced the federal bill called the Mental Health and Making Access More Affordable (MAMA) Act. This prospective legislation aims to expand access to services for mental health and substance use disorders during pregnancy and postpartum. (Eilbert and Lammert, 6/4)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Urged On By LGBTQ+ Activists, California Cities Weigh Stricter Smoking Rules

California has long been at the forefront of the fight against smoking, but some local officials in the San Francisco Bay Area, backed by activists who are especially concerned about high rates of smoking in the LGBTQ+ community, are spearheading proposals to further restrict how tobacco is sold and where it is smoked. In the city of Vallejo on the northeastern edge of San Pablo Bay, Council member Peter Bregenzer is leading an effort to crack down on smoke shops, which he says make it much too easy for children to smoke and vape. (Stephens, 6/4)

Two hours after a 74-year-old Nebraska woman was pronounced dead at her nursing home, workers at a funeral home made an astonishing discovery — she was still breathing. After the authorities were alerted, Constance Glantz was given CPR and rushed to a hospital, where she is alive, Lancaster County Chief Deputy Ben Houchin told reporters at a news briefing Monday. “This is a very unusual case,” he said. “Been doing this for 31 years, and nothing like this has ever gotten to this point before.” (Masih, 6/4)

The joy of the birth of their third son turned to fear, tragedy and now — after the partial loss of Brie Morgan Bauer’s legs and arms to toxic shock — has turned to hope and inspiration for hundreds of thousands of the Kansas City area mother’s followers on social media. A GoFundMe page, with a $100,000 goal to help with medical and other bills, on Monday had already surpassed $350,000. Mother and baby son have more than 360,000 Instagram followers from around the world. (Adler, 6/3)

Miles Campbell died last week, shortly after his parents Susie and Tyler Campbell, who were killed in the Memorial Day car crash that also fatally injured Miles. Because he was so generous in life, and his parents were listed as organ donors, Miles’ extended family members agreed to donate his organs. His last gift helped save the lives of four people, according to Dena Daw with HonorBridge, North Carolina’s largest federally designated organ procurement organization.(Fernandez, 6/4)

Jury selection for the trial of President Biden’s son Hunter on Monday turned into an impromptu but painful indictment of the nation’s drug epidemic, with person after person telling the court of their loved ones’ battles with addiction. ... Many offered their own versions of a written statement from President Biden, who was in Wilmington on Monday but did not come to the courthouse. He said he found his son’s recovery from addiction inspiring and knew that many families of addicts could relate to Hunter Biden’s journey. (Stein, Barrett and Viser, 6/3)

Throughout the country, most states are collecting data on how to effectively curb opioid overdose deaths. The problem — few are improving their treatment systems for people living with substance use disorder, according to a new report from Pew Charitable Trusts. (Biddle, 6/4)

Two yellowing sheets of paper in his home office are the remnants of a secret that nearly destroyed Dr. Glenn Dregansky. “Following several surgeries,” reads the admission to an Ohio drug treatment program, “the patient was introduced to opiates, which he began to abuse… .”“Vicodin, Oxycontin, Percocet,” the document reads…“Hydrocodone, Demerol, Pamelor, Halcion…“Ambien, Soma, Restoril.” Dr. Glenn Dregnansky, who is now chair of the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians, wasn’t prescribing the drugs. He was stealing them. “Chewing them like candy,” he clarifies. (Erb, 6/3)

The toll of homelessness and decades of substance abuse is evident in Bruce and Lisa, two clients of San Francisco’s controversial Managed Alcohol Program, from her missing teeth and gravelly voice to his bloodshot eyes. He once dropped a bottle of gin and then sucked the spilled liquid off the floor with a straw, desperate for the alcohol’s effects. She recently ventured off the residential program’s building in search of additional booze and promptly wound up in a hospital with a broken arm she still can’t explain. One fact they’re both clear on: Without the innovative city venture, they would be dead by now. (Ortiz, Thornton and Trethan, 6/4)

If you enjoy having a glass of wine or a cocktail before dozing off during long airplane flights, you might want to reconsider it, a new study suggests. A series of lab experiments discovered that when people fall asleep after consuming alcohol at the low air pressures typically experienced during airline flights, blood oxygen drops to worrisome levels and heart rates increase even in those who are healthy and young, according to the report published Monday in the journal Thorax. (Carroll, 6/3)

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death and disability in the United States — and new projections find it may become even more common in the next 30 years. In a report released Tuesday, the American Heart Association says more than 6 in 10 U.S. adults (61%) will have some type of cardiovascular disease, or CVD, by 2050. This is particularly driven by a projected 184 million people with hypertension, or high blood pressure, which is expected to increase from 51.2% in 2020 to 61% in 2025. (Moniuszko, 6/4)

Is eating a lot of salt harmful to your gut? Some scientists think so. They have found that diets high in sodium can have a detrimental impact on your gut microbiome, the community of trillions of bacteria, viruses and other microbes that live in our intestines. In studies, scientists have discovered that consuming high levels of sodium can suppress some of the beneficial microbes that live in our guts. Cutting back on salt seems to have the opposite effect. (O'Connor, 6/3)

Increased attention to patients' spiritual needs would improve U.S. public health, researchers argue in a new Health Affairs article. Why it matters: A growing body of scientific evidence shows that spiritual beliefs and practices positively affect health, but patients' spiritual needs are still under-addressed in clinical settings, a group of Harvard-affiliated researchers say. (Goldman, 6/4)

When the U.S. launched its invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 2000s, the military's surgeons were severely out of practice. ... Facing hundreds of injured soldiers per month, surgeons were thrust into performing procedures they might never have seen before serving in a war zone – like double amputations. Soldiers were often getting to surgeons far too late for their contaminated wounds to be treated. But as the fighting continued and the casualties mounted, the medical corps was forced to innovate. (6/3)

On May 6, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced new guidelines for research on dangerous pathogens and toxins, including microorganisms that can cause highly transmissible, high-mortality diseases, including H5N1 avian influenza, anthrax, and Ebola virus. The regulations become effective in May 2025. (Joseph Polidoro, 6/3)

In April the White House announced $105 million in funding for community resources to improve maternal and infant health across the country. The money, while not nearly enough to meet the overwhelming need for maternal mental health resources, is a glimmer of hope. Last month, a federal task force to improve maternal mental health published a report that found “the unmet need for treatment of maternal mental health conditions and [substance use disorders] has reached a crisis point.” (Tanzina Vega, 6/3)

Mental health is Texas’ foremost public health challenge today and a leading contributor to disability and death, especially among adolescent Texans. Compounded by historic underservice, Texas has faced an uphill battle when it comes to providing sufficient mental health resources to its growing population, but state leaders — including the University of Texas System — are committed to turning the tide. (David Lakey and John Zerwas, 6/3)

My memory problems began in 2022, but didn’t become pronounced or even apparent to me until 2023 while seeing patients. I finished medical training in 1997, and I’ve taken care of hundreds of patients with dementia over the following years. But when your doctor begins repeating questions he’s already asked, it doesn’t make a patient feel very confident. (Brent W. Beasley, 6/2)

In 2020, lawmakers in California and Massachusetts banned menthol, a chemical that causes a cooling sensation, as an additive in cigarettes. The idea was, in part, to curb youth smoking; menthol makes cigarettes more palatable by creating a “cooling” sensation. Regulators had deemed the chemical unsafe for its role in promoting nicotine addiction. (Julie B. Zimmerman, et al, 6/3)