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Just two weeks after dozens of CVS pharmacists protested unsafe working conditions by walking off the job in Kansas City, Walgreens pharmacists followed suit with their own walkout Monday that left stores shuttered or short-staffed across the nation’s second-largest retail pharmacy chain. The organizer estimated that several hundred pharmacists and pharmacy technicians participated in the protest, which will last through Wednesday. (Le Coz, 10/9)

The concerted action appears to be organically organized, largely coordinated on Reddit and other social media platforms. On these sites, users described ongoing problems with unrealistic demands from Walgreens management. "We need more budget, more physical bodies of staffing, and adequate safety regulations for us to serve our customers," one Reddit post said. Protesting workers include pharmacists, technicians, and support staff. (Reuter, 10/9)

Some stores are remaining open with a skeleton emergency crew – an organizer told CNN that Walgreens had asked regional leaders to mobilize and staff the pharmacies on Monday. Many pharmacies that are open are severely understaffed as the majority of their employees called out today. Some stores said they were able to operate only their drive-thru pharmacy Monday and others said they would be closing early due to a lack of staff. (Goodkind, 10/9)

A dose of patience may come in handy at the pharmacy counter this fall. Drug and staffing shortages haven’t gone away. Stores are starting their busiest time of year as customers look for help with colds and the flu. And this fall, pharmacists are dealing with a new vaccine and the start of insurance coverage for COVID-19 shots. Some drugstores have addressed their challenges by adding employees at busy hours. But experts say many pharmacies, particularly the big chains, still don’t have enough workers behind the counter. (Murphy, 10/7)

The labor coalition that staged a 72-hour strike by 75,000 healthcare workers against Kaiser Permanente last week is giving the company nearly three more weeks to reach a contract deal before facing a second, potentially longer walkout next month. The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions said on Monday it has served the company notice that a weeklong "follow-up strike is possible" starting Nov. 1 unless the two sides come to a settlement beforehand. (Gorman, 10/9)

Members of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions and health system leadership will return to the bargaining table Thursday following the coalition’s three-day strike last week. The strike, which involved more than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente employees and affected dozens of facilities nationwide, ended Saturday at 6 a.m. Pacific time with no further agreements made on a contract between the coalition and the health system. (Devereaux, 10/9)

A work stoppage that's been deemed the largest health care strike in U.S. history could see a part two with implications for employees, patients and the field at large. The strike, which comes amid a shortage of health care workers and employee burnout, could affect the entire industry if other unions follow suit. (Rubin, 10/6)

Kaiser Foundation Hospitals has disclosed plans to trim scores of California jobs, most of them in the Bay Area, according to official filings with state labor officials. The healthcare titan revealed that it plans to eliminate 49 non-union jobs in California, the filings with the state Employment Development Department show. The Bay Area layoffs include a loss of 28 jobs, all in the East Bay, according to the WARN notices. (Avalos, 10/9)

Roughly 1,500 essential workers at four hospitals in Los Angeles County kicked off a five-day strike Monday morning to protest what they claim are dangerous working conditions and unfair labor practices by hospital management. ... The strike follows on the heels of what many called a “hot labor summer,” when writers, actors and hotel workers organized labor actions across Southern California. (Solis, 10/9)

A handful of independent pharmacies across the country have quietly begun dispensing the abortion pill mifepristone under new rules created by the Biden administration earlier this year, even as a looming Supreme Court case could reimpose restrictions or ban the drugs entirely. Thousands of branches of major pharmacy chains are poised to join them — making the drugs more accessible to millions of people nationwide and kicking off a new phase of the legal and political battle over the most popular method of ending a pregnancy. (Ollstein and Gardner, 10/6)

Attorney General Ashley Moody will try to block a proposed constitutional amendment that seeks to ensure abortion rights in Florida, according to a filing Monday at the state Supreme Court. Moody took a required step of asking the Supreme Court to review the wording of the proposed amendment, which supporters hope to put on the November 2024 ballot. As part of that filing, Moody wrote, “I submit that the aforementioned initiative does not satisfy the legal requirements for ballot placement.” The Supreme Court plays a key gatekeeper role, as it reviews proposed ballot initiatives to determine if the wording is clear and is limited to single subjects. It can reject initiatives that don’t meet legal standards. (Saunders and News Service of Florida, 10/9)

Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at ensuring abortion rights have topped 400,000 valid petition signatures submitted to the state. The Florida Division of Elections website on Thursday showed 402,082 valid signatures for the proposal, which the political committee Floridians Protecting Freedom is trying to put on the November 2024 ballot. The total reflects signatures that have been validated, not necessarily the overall number of signatures collected. (10/9)

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit on Sept. 21 against a chain of California crisis pregnancy centers and its national parent organization for false advertising of “abortion pill reversal” (APR)—an unproven and possibly dangerous high-dose progesterone intervention the anti-abortion movement claims can “reverse” an underway medication abortion. This is the first lawsuit in the country challenging the CPC industry’s promotion of APR. (McKenna and Baker, 10/9)

Michigan Democrats want to pass new bills to remove abortion obstacles like a 24-hour waiting period, and a ban on Medicaid reimbursement. But one Democrat doesn't agree — and they need her vote. (Wells, 10/10)

More than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court decided states could set their own abortion laws, including bans, the nation’s highest court now could cut off abortion access in states where abortion is still legal. The Supreme Court began its new term this week and has yet to announce whether it will hear Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, before the term ends in June 2024. This case was designed by the religious right to overturn the approval of the commonly used abortion drug mifepristone. But whatever the court does — even if it declines to hear the case — will further alter healthcare access in the U.S., reproductive health advocates said on a call to reporters Thursday. (Resnick, 10/8)

A crucial new phase in the political struggle over abortion rights is unfolding in suburban neighborhoods across Virginia. An array of closely divided suburban and exurban districts around the state will decide which party controls the Virginia state legislature after next month’s election, and whether Republicans here succeed in an ambitious attempt to reframe the politics of abortion rights that could reverberate across the nation. (Brownstein, 10/8)

There are six times as many white women as Black women in Ohio. Yet last year, Black women had more abortions. The wild disparity and other data in the most recent state abortion report suggest that economics plays a huge role in women’s decisions about whether to abort a pregnancy. The economic impacts of pregnancy and abortion might be considerations for Ohioans as they go to the polls on Nov. 7 to vote on Issue 1, an amendment that would enshrine reproductive rights in the state Constitution. (Schladen, 10/9)

Missouri is turning to voters after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned 'Roe v. Wade.' Abortion rights advocates are trying to repeal the ban in 2024 — and that includes a new Republican-led nonprofit. (Rosenbaum, 10/9)

The topic of babies came up when Kesha Baptiste-Roberts was chatting recently with a young woman working the counter at a makeup store in the mall. The worker, a Black woman, told Baptiste-Roberts she didn’t want to get pregnant. Not because it wasn’t the right time for her, or because she didn’t want kids. Because she didn’t want to die. (Roberts, 10/9)

As more Americans are being diagnosed with multiple chronic health problems at younger ages, for the first time, the American Heart Association is identifying a new medical condition that reflects the strong links among obesity, diabetes and heart and kidney disease. According to an advisory released Monday, the goal in recognizing the condition — cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome, or CKM — is to get earlier diagnosis and treatment for people at high risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. (Carroll, 10/9)

In a setback for Novo Nordisk, a U.S. judge dismissed its lawsuit accusing a compound pharmacy of selling versions of its Wegovy and Ozempic medicines, which are widely prescribed for weight loss and have become franchise products for the drug company. (Silverman, 10/6)

The number of U.S. employers who cover obesity medications, including Wegovy from Novo Nordisk that belongs to a class of GLP-1 drugs, could nearly double next year, according to a survey. The survey of 502 employers by Accolade, a company that provides healthcare programs for employers, and research firm Savanta said 43% of the employers it polled could cover GLP-1 drugs in 2024 compared to 25% that cover them now. (10/10)

Jeannette Simonton was a textbook candidate for the obesity drug Wegovy when her doctor prescribed it to her in February. At 5 feet 2 inches and 228 pounds, she had a body mass index of nearly 42 — well above the cutoff U.S. regulators had approved for eligibility for the medication. She also had serious joint problems after decades of struggling with her weight. But her insurance refused to pay for the medication, citing a blanket ban on covering weight-loss drugs, according to a letter Ms. Simonton received in March from her benefits administrator. (Robbins, 10/10)

Contract drug manufacturers seeking to tap into the booming market for weight-loss drugs are investing billions of dollars to expand or build factories that fill the injection pens used to administer treatments like Novo Nordisk's Wegovy. Interviews with a dozen company executives, analysts and investors showed pharmaceutical services companies jostling to secure more of the specialist work of filling the syringes used in the pens, a process known as fill-finish. (Fick, 10/9)

For decades, WeightWatchers told the world that weight loss came through sheer willpower—“choice, not chance,” as its founder, Jean Nidetch, said in the 1960s. Now, thanks to new drugs like Ozempic, Sistani is rejecting that blame-the-dieter approach in favor of the view that obesity is an illness—one her company can help cure. The promise that a doctor’s prescription can eliminate extra weight for good has touched off a seismic moment in global health, and compelled WeightWatchers to undergo its most radical change yet.  (Schwartzel, 10/7)

Businesses are bracing for an explosion in the use of new weight loss drugs, with some investors betting that these medications could precipitate seismic shifts not only in how Americans eat but which clothes they buy and even how much they weigh down passenger airplanes. Some companies say they are already noticing a difference in how takers of these drugs shop. A Walmart executive told Bloomberg last week that the giant retailer found people taking GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy bought slightly less food than other customers. Shares of Mondelez International, maker of popular snacks like Oreos and Ritz crackers, fell 7.7% during the following two days. The Hershey Co. and PepsiCo also saw their stocks slide. (Gilbert and Reiley, 10/9)

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Saturday that sets the stage for California to work toward universal healthcare, such as a single-payer system that progressive activists have sought for years. The law could help California obtain a waiver that would allocate federal Medicaid and Medicare funds to be used for what could eventually become a single-payer system that would cover every California resident and be financed entirely by state and federal funds. (Sosa, 10/8)

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a landmark law aimed at banning red dye No. 3 and other potentially harmful food additives in consumer goods. On Saturday, the Golden State became the first in the country to forbid the use of the ingredients found in many popular candies, drinks and more, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental health organization that cosponsored the law with Consumer Reports. (Boyette, Rogers and Babineau, 10/9)

For the first time, California pharmacies must report every prescription error under legislation signed by the governor Sunday. The measure — Assembly Bill 1286 — is aimed at reducing the estimated 5 million mistakes pharmacists make each year. ... In a survey of California licensed pharmacists in 2021, 91% of those working at chain pharmacies said staffing wasn’t high enough to provide patients adequate care. (Petersen, 10/9)

Seeking to make rape kits more accessible to students, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Monday that will require most California universities and colleges to provide transportation for students to and from a sexual assault treatment center. Assembly member Akilah Weber (D-La Mesa) wrote Assembly Bill 1138, which will require schools to provide free and anonymous transportation to a treatment center that provides Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence (SAFE) exams or to contract with local organizations to provide the transportation. (Lin, 10/9)

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Friday that would have decriminalized psilocybin, aka magic mushrooms — but left the door open for California to reconsider it next year. Newsom, in his veto message, said the measure proposed by San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, would have decriminalized possession before therapeutic protections are in place. (Garofoli, 10/7)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday vetoed legislation that would have provided teenagers attending public high school with access to free condoms and prohibited retailers from refusing to sell them to youths. Newsom said that although he agreed that providing condoms are “important to supporting improved adolescent sexual health,” the bill would have created an unfunded program that was not included in the state’s annual budget. (Sosa, 10/8)

One town in Kansas is losing its hospital. 13 NEWS reached out to the Herington Hospital Monday morning about reports of its closure. Employees were informed Monday the facility is indeed closing. The hospital confirmed the closure to 13 NEWS around 3 p.m. All services end on Monday. The building will remain open through the end of the week for people to retrieve their medical records. Any records will need to be requested in person, though the hospital did note they will be maintained. In a statement released Monday afternoon, Herington Hospital cited “lengthy financial struggles and consistently low patient volumes” prompting the decision. (Grabauskas, 10/9)

Three Connecticut hospitals that are the target of Yale New Haven (Conn.) Health either have negative or near negative days' cash on hand, according to a September 2023 report. The hospitals — Waterbury Hospital and two others operated by Eastern Connecticut Health Network, Manchester Memorial and Vernon-based Rockville Hospital — are currently owned by Los Angeles-based for-profit operator Prospect Medical. Yale New Haven officials have expressed increasing concern about the financial state of the three hospitals, threatening the completion of any potential acquisition. (Thomas, 10/9)

Rural health providers have a long to-do list for Congress. When the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee last month put out a call for ideas on shoring up rural America's fraying health care system, rural providers came prepared. (Goldman, 10/10)

Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton fully reopened Sunday morning, about a day after a power outage in some parts of the building forced officials to evacuate some patients and direct ambulances to other hospitals in the area. The hospital lifted its “code black” — meaning it had been diverting ambulances to other facilities — at about 7:30 a.m., according to Deborah Chiaravalloti, a spokesperson for Steward Health Care. “We are back up and running,” Chiaravalloti said in an email. (Hilliard, 10/8)

Venture capital firm General Catalyst has tapped former Intermountain Health CEO Dr. Marc Harrison to lead a new company focused on health system transformation. The company, Health Assurance Transformation Corp., or HATco, was launched publicly by Harrison and General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja at the HLTH conference on Sunday in Las Vegas. The company, which will be owned by General Catalyst, will provide advisory services to health systems and help them pivot to value-based care, adopt digital platforms that can scale across the enterprise, align stakeholder interests and improve financial sustainability. (Perna, 10/8)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Thousands Got Exactech Knee Or Hip Replacements. Then, Patients Say, The Parts Began To Fail

Ron Irby expected the artificial knee implanted in his right leg in September 2018 would last two decades — perhaps longer. Yet in just three years, the Optetrak implant manufactured by Exactech in Gainesville, Florida, had worn out and had to be replaced — a painful and debilitating operation. (Schulte, 10/10)

Google’s cloud arm is adding a generative artificial intelligence search function for healthcare and life science organizations, the company announced at the HLTH conference on Monday. Google Cloud said its Vertex AI search capabilities are being tuned for healthcare organizations, which will allow clinicians to search for specific information directly in electronic health records and other clinical systems. (Perna, 10/9)

As artificial intelligence gains an ever-widening role in the medical field, the Mayo Clinic has recently appointed a new executive to lead the health system’s efforts in that area. Radiologist Bhavik Patel, M.D., has been named chief artificial intelligence officer (CAIO) for Mayo Clinic Arizona. Before joining the clinic in 2021, Patel practiced at Duke University Medical Center and Stanford University Medical Center. Dr. Richard Gray, CEO of Mayo Clinic Arizona, announced the hire on LinkedIn, noting the organization has only "begun to scratch the surface of AI's potential in medicine." (Rudy, 10/10)

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has shed light on the rate at which long COVID affects children, indicating the condition occurs among only a small minority of them. In a new survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the CDC found that 1.3 percent of children had long COVID in 2022 and 0.5 percent now have it. (Choi, 10/9)

People who test negative for the coronavirus but experience a lingering cough, fatigue or digestive issues may suffer from “long colds,” according to a new study. Contrary to the common belief that respiratory infections like colds and flu vanish within a week, the findings published Friday in the Lancet scientific journal suggest that they can lead to health complications persisting for more than four weeks after the initial illness, often escaping detection. (Vaziri, 10/6)

Vaccine maker Novavax Inc on Monday said it has shipped millions of doses its updated COVID-19 shots to distributors after receiving the go-ahead from U.S. regulators. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the updated vaccine last week for emergency use in individuals aged 12 years and older, but batches of the shots needed additional clearance from the FDA before they could be released. (Erman, 10/9)

Americans have started rolling up their sleeves for the latest version of the COVID-19 vaccine, but weeks into the rollout some say they are still having difficulty finding appointments for themselves and their children. Shot seekers also say they have been surprised by requests for upfront payments of $150 to $200 now that the U.S. government has handed off to private companies including vaccine makers, pharmacies, and insurance plans to handle distribution, administration and payment coverage. (Erman and Aboulenein, 10/8)

A new study has an encouraging message for Americans who shy away from Covid shots because of worries about side effects: The chills, fatigue, headache and malaise that can follow vaccination may be signs of a vigorous immune response. People who had those side effects after the second dose of a Covid vaccine had more antibodies against the coronavirus at one month and six months after the shot, compared with those who did not have symptoms, according to the new study. Increases in skin temperature and heart rate also signaled higher antibody levels. (Mandavilli, 10/7)

Older adults in the U.S. remain at higher risk of hospitalization due to COVID-19, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Adults age 65 and older accounted for nearly 63% of all COVID-related hospitalizations between January and August 2023, the CDC reported on Friday. In a majority of those cases, the patients had "multiple underlying conditions," according to the agency’s report. (Rudy, 10/8)

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic revised its hydroxychloroquine site after a former Trump administration official linked to it in a tweet. Mayo Clinic said it took down the webpage last month to "make it clear that hydroxychloroquine should not be used to treat COVID-19 patients." (Bruce, 10/9)

Missouri health officials recently defended social media posts instructing COVID-19 vaccine skeptics to “just keep scrolling” after the posts generated heavy criticism. The Sept. 13 posts on X and Facebook were promoting the updated COVID-19 vaccine, which authorities began rolling out last month. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending the vaccine for everyone 6 months and older. Missouri health officials said, “COVID vaccines will be available in Missouri soon, if you’re in to that sort of thing. If not, just keep scrolling!” (Suntrup, 10/6)

The family convicted for selling a bleach mixture as COVID cure was sentenced Friday to several years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida. Prosecutors said the men sold more than $1 million of the “Miracle Mineral Solution,” commonly referred to as MMS, claiming it could cure almost any ailment including coronavirus. Mark Grenon founded the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, which he admitted to being a front to to protect their practice of selling MMS, according to court documents. (Crowley, 10/9)

While a narrative emerged that the pandemic indiscriminately struck the young and healthy, new evidence suggests that frail young adults were most vulnerable. (Kolata, 10/9)

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is giving $40 million to fund mRNA research and manufacturing to help poorer countries expand their drug and vaccine supplies. The funding bolsters a plan for Africa to gain equitable access to the mRNA technology that soared to prominence during the race to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, building on a previous $55 million commitment. The foundation announced the pledge at a forum to promote donations for health issues in Dakar, Senegal on Monday. (Kew, 10/9)

Approximately 20 percent of adolescents had symptoms of major depressive disorder in 2021 — the first full calendar year of the pandemic — but less than half who needed treatment received it, according to a new study. The research, published in JAMA Pediatrics, found that treatment was most lacking for minority adolescents, particularly those who are Latino and mixed-race. (Richtel, 10/9)

World Mental Health Day is October 10. More than one in five youths (ages 13-18) currently or at some point in their lives will have a seriously debilitating mental illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  Fox News Digital spoke with Dr. Megan Campbell, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, who shared four tips for how to support kids through the peaks and valleys of life. (Kasko, 10/10)

To be a U.S. teenager in 2023 is both the same as it ever was, and astoundingly different from even a generation ago. Along with all the classic challenges of growing up—grades, parents, first loves—looms a crop of newer ones: TikTok, gun violence, political division, the whipsaw of COVID-19, the not-so-slow creep of climate change. (Hammond, 10/10)

A new study stresses why it's so important for parents to forge a close bond with their children.  Researchers at the University of Cambridge studied data on 10,000 people in the United Kingdom and found that those who were closer to their parents at age three were more likely to be "pro-social" and demonstrate "kindness, empathy, and generosity, by adolescence." They also tended to have fewer mental health problems. (Marshall, 10/9)

Two months after wildfires devastated parts of Maui, Hawaii's health department is conducting a needs assessment to understand where healthcare gaps may exist after the fire upended resources and destroyed some care facilities. Following the fire, the Maui District Health Office opened a clinic in West Maui that offered general health services including wound care, pharmacy and prescriptions needs and mental health services. (Hallowell, 10/9)

Between federal COVID relief funds and the $1.4 billion sign-on bonus North Carolina received for expanding Medicaid, state lawmakers were able to make significant investments in mental health services in the latest state budget. Though state budget negotiations are done almost entirely behind the closed doors of the majority party in the General Assembly — currently the Republicans — health leaders in the House and Senate said they took care to listen to patients, families and providers while creating their mental health spending plan while also working closely with Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley. (Knopf, 10/6)

Excessive drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to skyrocketing rates of alcohol-associated liver disease to the point of needing transplants, according to doctors. Transplant centers across the United States are reporting more patients in need of a new liver than ever before, sometimes seeing double the number of patients needing transplants compared to pre-pandemic levels. (Kekatos, 10/8)

Scientists in Southern California are asking the kind of questions that make soda drinkers uneasy after a recent study that found fast-food soda fountains were serving up high levels of bacteria along with self-serve drinks. Researchers from Loma Linda University found bacteria levels that surpassed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations for drinking water at fast-food restaurants in the eastern Coachella Valley, where largely low-income, Latino farmworker families have struggled with accessing potable water. (Cuevas, 10/9)

A fortnight camping on the mosquito-ridden, muddy banks of the Kolyma River in Russia may not sound like the most glamorous of work trips. But it’s a sacrifice virologist Jean-Michel Claverie was willing to make to uncover the truth about zombie viruses — yet another risk that climate change poses to public health. His discoveries shine a light on a grim reality of global warming as it thaws ground that had been frozen for millenniums. Claverie, 73, has spent over a decade studying “giant” viruses, including ones nearly 50,000 years old found deep within layers of Siberian permafrost. (Tetley and Shrivastava, 10/9)

Children across all grade levels are taught nutrition concepts aimed at improving health, but I find these well-intended lessons can end up backfiring, harming kids’ eating habits and their overall well-being. Nutrition lessons — largely driven by state education standards — can be damaging because they unintentionally convey the same messages as an eating disorder: cut out certain foods, limit calories and fear weight gain. (Hanson, 10/9)

More than 45 school districts in Oklahoma are taking advantage of the USDA program to buy meats, produce and livestock from local producers to help feed their children and reduce the cost of school lunches, which have risen thanks to inflation at the same time pandemic-era funding to subsidize school meals has ended. ... For two years, pandemic federal funding helped provide free school meals for all students, which studies have shown significantly impact children’s physical and cognitive development, but that program ended in 2022. (Kemp, 10/6)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Epidemic: Bodies Remember What Was Done To Them 

Global fears of overpopulation in the ’60s and ’70s helped fuel India’s campaign to slow population growth. Health workers tasked to encourage family planning were dispatched throughout the country and millions of people were sterilized — some voluntarily, some for a monetary reward, and some through force. This violent and coercive campaign — and the distrust it created — was a backdrop for the smallpox eradication campaign happening simultaneously in India. (10/10)

In a sobering analysis, researchers warn that those who’ve had childhood cancer are highly likely to face physical and mental health challenges later in life, with 95 percent developing a “significant health problem” related to their cancer or treatment by age 45. The researchers reviewed 73 studies, including 39 cohort studies that followed patients over time. Publishing their findings in JAMA, they said approximately 15,000 children and adolescents through age 19 are diagnosed with cancer every year and that 85 percent of children now live five years or more beyond their diagnosis. That’s compared with just 58 percent in the 1970s, according to the American Cancer Society. (Blakemore, 10/8)

Fewer U.S. cancer centers are reporting shortages of critical drugs than at the beginning of the summer, but the shortfalls are far from resolved, a new survey of leading cancer centers found. The availability of life-saving platinum-based generic cancer drugs reached crisis levels earlier this year, leading doctors to delay patients' care or turn to less attractive alternatives and causing the FDA to OK importation of certain drugs from China. (Reed, 10/6)

Bristol Myers Squibb said that it would purchase Mirati Therapeutics, maker of the cancer drug Krazati, for $4.8 billion in cash in a deal that shows the continued interest of large pharmaceutical firms in relatively small “bolt-on” acquisitions. (Herper, 10/8)

Within the linings of our guts, immune cells patrol like sentries on a castle wall. These cells, called intraepithelial T lymphocytes, are constantly probing the cells of the gut barrier for signs of disease, killing any cells that appear suspect due to infections or cancer mutations. A new paper published in Science Immunology on Friday suggests that a subtype of T cells called gamma-delta T cells may be key to that process — and that a protein known as TCF-1 is central to controlling their actions. (Chen, 10/6)

Vanessa De La Rosa Martinez was 29 when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer. She had no family history. She didn't smoke or drink excessively. “It was surprising because I'm not out there. I was living basically the average life of an American person,” she said. Martinez is one example of a trend doctors are seeing: cancer diagnoses in younger demographics of women. A study released this year by the JAMA Network found that between 2010 and 2019 about 63% of cancer patients were women with early onset cancer — breast cancer being the most common diagnosis. (Pedersen, 10/9)

Best Buy will begin selling the Dexcom G7 continuous glucose monitoring system online, its foray into selling prescription-based medical devices. Best Buy Health, which announced the news Monday during this year's HLTH conference in Las Vegas, said it is working with virtual care platform Wheel and pharmacy partner HealthDyne to sell the device used by people with diabetes. (Hudson, 10/9)

The Food and Drug Administration refused to expand its approval of a gene-silencing medicine from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals to treat a rare progressive heart disease after concluding that the benefits to patients weren’t “clinically meaningful,” the firm said Monday. Yvonne Greenstreet, Alnylam’s chief executive, told analysts in a conference call that she was “quite surprised” by the FDA decision, which was received in a letter to the Cambridge company. (Saltzman, 10/9)

Nearly two years after Mark Cuban launched a mail-order pharmacy with low-cost medications, the entrepreneur and "Shark Tank" star has secured more than a dozen collaborators. In September, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. penned a deal with Avanlee Care, which runs an app designed to help caregivers for elderly patients. The app, called Ava, will feature an option for its users to order medications from Cost Plus Drugs. Mr. Cuban's company also teamed up with two fertility health companies to reduce the burden of the pink tax, or inflated prices on women's products. (Twenter, 10/9)

A hacker is offering to sell records identifying names, locations and ethnicities of potentially millions of customers of genetic testing company 23andMe, beginning by touting a batch that would contain data of those with Jewish ancestry. A 23andMe spokeswoman confirmed that the leak contained samples of genuine data and said the company is investigating. (Menn, 10/6)

At what point does inflammation, a key component of the body’s immune defense system, swerve out of control and start to drive disease? That’s the key question that a new research center, the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago, has been created to try to answer. The Chicago hub is the second one started by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropic organization of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. (Chen, 10/6)

At long last, there are two effective vaccines that can protect older people against the respiratory syncytial virus. Yet administrative barriers are making it difficult for millions of vulnerable seniors to access them. (Leana S. Wen, 10/10)

In the decades since the Community Mental Health Act was enacted, Kennedy’s vision has been distorted beyond recognition. Institutions were emptied with no plan for patients and little money for community care. Mental health coverage wasn’t prioritized in the 1965 creation of Medicaid and Medicare. (Kate Woodsome, 10/9)

An advisory committee for the Food and Drug Administration recently concluded that a popular oral decongestant sold over the counter was no better than placebo. The agency now faces the question of whether to pull medications that use the ingredient — called phenylephrine — off store shelves. (Ted J. Kaptchuk, 10/10)

To the surprise of many, Utah became the first state in the nation last year to unanimously support making free period products available in all K-12 school bathrooms, followed a year later by providing free period products in all state buildings. (Emily Bell McCormick, 10/10)

​​When you’re pregnant, there’s plenty to worry about. Your baby, for example. Your own health. And then there’s everyone else — the cadre of ordinary strangers who transform themselves into an ambient squad of the pregnancy police whenever they spot a woman who looks as if she’s about to have a baby. (Lindsay Crouse, Adam Westbrook and Amanda Su, 10/10)

We are in a technological revolution: the development of generative Artificial Intelligence. The recent evolution of chatbots through programs such as ChatGPT and Google Bard offer problem-solving tools with numerous potential applications. One of the most promising uses of AI lies in the field of mental health medicine. However, due to the unknown effects of AI implementation and the vulnerable status of mental health patients, there are serious concerns about chatbot therapy. (John Saunders, 10/9)

If the Covid-19 pandemic has shown us one thing, it is how little we really know about how the human immune system works. Despite the remarkable success in development of vaccines to prevent severe disease from SARS-CoV-2, it remains unclear how SARS-CoV-2, a newly emerging virus, causes such a broad spectrum of disease, ranging from asymptomatic and mild cases to severe disease and death. (Wayne C. Koff, Eric E. Schmidt and Peter C. Doherty, 10/6)