Reevaluation of Religious Vaccination Exemptions in Child Care by States
Providers and health care advocates warn a proposed rule change in Montana would jeopardize immunity levels in child care centers and communities. Efforts to change vaccination exemption rules are underway in other states, too. (Matt Volz, 11/3 )
Children's Hospitals Anticipate Rise in Admissions Due to Shortage of RSV Medication, Reports The Hill
A supply shortage means a drug that can prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants won’t have a major immediate impact, children’s hospitals said, and they are preparing for a surge in admissions this respiratory disease season. “Widespread access [to the new antibody drug] will take time across many sectors of the pediatric population and won’t have as great an impact on volumes this immediate respiratory season,” the Children’s Hospital Association said in a statement. (Weixel, 10/31)
AP Report: Decreased Vaping Among High School Students in the US This Year
Fewer high school students are vaping this year, the government reported Thursday. In a survey, 10% of high school students said they had used electronic cigarettes in the previous month, down from 14% last year. Use of any tobacco product — including cigarettes and cigars — also fell among high schoolers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. (Stobbe and Perrone, 11/2)
Health News by KFF: States Reassess Religious Exemptions for Vaccinations in Child Care
More than half the children who attend Munchkin Land Daycare near Billings, Montana, have special needs or compromised immune systems. The kids, who range in age from 4 months to 9 years, have conditions that include fetal alcohol syndrome, cystic fibrosis, and Down syndrome, according to owner Sheryl Hutzenbiler. “These families came to me knowing we could offer them a safe and healthy environment,” Hutzenbiler said. Part of ensuring that healthy environment is having a strong vaccination policy, she said, especially for those who are immunocompromised or too young to receive the full slate of childhood vaccines. (Volz, 11/3)
The Hill: EPA Ban on Pesticide Associated with Childhood Brain Damage Overturned by Court
A federal appeals court on Thursday is tossing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ban on a pesticide that has been linked to brain damage in children. The decision from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to send the rule back to the agency does not preclude the agency from reinstating the ban in the future. But it said the EPA needs to give greater consideration to whether there are cases where the pesticide, called chlorpyrifos, could be used safely. (Frazin, 11/2)
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Connection Found Between Fentanyl Exposure During Pregnancy and a Newly Identified Medical Syndrome in Infants
The babies are born with small heads, underdeveloped jawbones, conjoined toes and rounded, “rocker-bottom” feet. Physicians at Nemours Children’s Health say they all have one thing in common: They were exposed in utero to significant amounts of fentanyl, a dangerous synthetic opioid. In a new study, the authors say they’ve identified 10 such babies so far, describing their constellation of symptoms as a “novel syndrome associated with prenatal fentanyl exposure.” (Avril and Whelan, 11/2)
Military.com: The Air Force is Probing Instances of Uncommon Brain Cancers in Children. This is not an Unprecedented Occurrence.
The Air Force has been investigating cases of rare pediatric brain cancers diagnosed in three military children at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico to determine whether the disease is more widespread in the region than previously reported or is occurring at higher rates than average. Epidemiologists from the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine began assessing cases of diffuse midline glioma, or DMG, and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or DIPG, at Cannon and in the surrounding area in January after concerns arose among families who have lived on the installation, according to a press release last week from the 27th Special Operations Wing. (Kime, 11/1)
NPR: Progress Toward Making a Breakthrough Gene-Editing Therapy for Sickle Cell Disease a Reality
The Food and Drug Administration may soon approve a therapy that uses the gene-editing technique called CRISPR to treat sickle cell disease. It would mark the first time gene editing moves from the lab into clinical use. A committee of advisers to the FDA meets Tuesday to review the scientific evidence for the treatment, including whether sufficient research has been done to assess its long-term safety. The agency has until Dec. 8 to make a decision about the therapy, known as "exa-cel." (Stein, 10/31)
Los Angeles Times: Allegations of a Harmful Workplace Environment and Retaliation by Harbor-UCLA Doctors
Beginning a decade ago, staff at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center started to report the same high-ranking doctor, alleging jarring sexual comments and retaliatory behavior that routinely raised alarms inside the renowned teaching hospital. Maria Garibay, then a medical secretary, told human resources in 2013 that her boss, Dr. Louis Kwong, the head of orthopedics, would openly discuss with his staff how the women he operated on under anesthesia “would groom their pubic areas,” according to her written complaint reviewed by The Times. Los Angeles County, which runs the public hospital in West Carson, found the complaint unsubstantiated. (Ellis, 11/3)
Modern Healthcare: CDC Introduces Initiative Addressing Burnout Among Healthcare Workers
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is launching an effort to help hospitals address workforce burnout and support the mental wellness of their employees. Led by the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation, the initiative includes resources for hospitals to identify areas for improvement in employee well-being and training for frontline leaders to help foster a better work-life balance among staff. (Devereaux, 10/31)
Stat: CDC Urges Healthcare Leaders to Increase Efforts in Alleviating Burnout
Often, workplace conversations about burnout put the onus on the individual to take care of their mental health while ignoring management’s role in solving the problem. A new anti-burnout campaign from the Centers for Disease Control and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health avoids this typical — and often frustrating — tactic, instead imploring leaders to better support health care workers. (Trang, 10/31)
Fresno Bee: Last Year, University of California Compensated 114 Doctors with Over $1 Million. How Many Were Women?
The University of California’s health system paid 113 medical professors at least $1 million in total pay last year. Only 12 of those high-earning health professionals were women, according to a Sacramento Bee analysis of 2022 payroll data from the UC Office of the President. (Miller and Reese, 10/31)
Significant Disparity in Pay Between Male and Female High-Earning UC Medical Professors: The University of California’s health system paid 113 medical professors at least $1 million in total pay last year. But an analysis found that only 12 of those high-earning health professionals were women. Read more from The Sacramento Bee.
USA Today: Worker Protest at Chain Pharmacies as 'Pharmageddon' Walkout Begins Pharmacists protesting deteriorating working conditions inside the nation’s largest retail chains launched their third and largest walkout of the season on Monday with a three-day movement they've dubbed "Pharmageddon." Organizers estimated the effort has drawn as many as 4,500 pharmacists and pharmacy technicians from multiple chains, including CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens. It also drew support from the American Pharmacists Association, the industry’s largest professional organization, which said in a statement it stands with every participant of the movement. (Le Coz, 10/30)
The Hill: USDA Findings Show Approximately 50% of Eligible Individuals Received WIC Benefits in 2021
Only half of people eligible for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) receive benefits from it, a new United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) report has found. The report, released Friday, said that despite 12.1 million Americans being eligible for the program in 2021, only 6.2 million received benefits, or 51 percent. (Suter, 11/3)
KFF Health News: Medicaid 'Unwinding' Causes Disarray in States, Described as 'More Severe Than Envisaged'
More than two dozen people lined up outside a state public assistance office in Montana before it opened to ensure they didn’t get cut off from Medicaid. Callers in Missouri and Florida reported waiting on hold for more than two hours on hotlines to renew their Medicaid coverage. The parents of a disabled man in Tennessee who had been on Medicaid for three decades fought with the state this summer to keep him enrolled as he lay dying from pneumonia in a hospital. (Galewitz, Houghton, Kelman and Liss, 11/2)
Secret Well-Maintained: Compensation for Pregnant Farm Workers: California is part of a handful of states that offers a State Disability Insurance (SDI) program. ... What’s unique to the California program is that farmworkers — regardless of citizenship status — who are exposed to pesticides can take time off during the pregnancy as a preventive measure if other accommodations aren’t available, receiving 70 percent of their wages to make up for lost income. In 2025, that number goes up to 90 percent for low-wage workers. Read more from The 19th.
Bloomberg: First Increase in US Infant Mortality Rate in Twenty Years After two decades of improvement, infant mortality in the US is getting worse as an increasing number of mothers lack access to care. Deaths among US infants less than a year old rose 3% in 2022 to 5.6 per 1,000 live deliveries, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was the first statistically significant year-over-year increase in the country’s infant mortality rate since 2002. (LaPara, 11/1)
AP: CDC Reports Largest Two-Decade Surge in US Infant Mortality Rate Last Year
The U.S. infant mortality rate rose 3% last year — the largest increase in two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. White and Native American infants, infant boys and babies born at 37 weeks or earlier had significant death rate increases. The CDC’s report, published Wednesday, also noted larger increases for two of the leading causes of infant deaths — maternal complications and bacterial meningitis. (Stobbe, 11/1)
CalMatters: Discrepancies Uncovered in Maternal Mortality Rates for Black Mothers in California
More than two and a half years after a law took effect requiring maternity care staff to complete racism in medicine training, only 17% of hospitals were in compliance, according to an investigation published by the state Department of Justice Friday. The training matters, Attorney General Rob Bonta and others said during a press conference, because of the state’s persistently high death rates among Black mothers. (Hwang, 10/27)
Los Angeles Times: Numerous Californians Remain Stranded on Home Care Assistance Waitlists
Nine months after giving birth, Caitlin Martin is still waiting to bring her son home from the hospital. Her son Connor uses a feeding tube and relies on a tracheostomy and a ventilator to breathe. He was born with a rare birth defect called an omphalocele, which means some of his organs sit in a sac outside his body. Surgeons will eventually fix it, but only after a few years when he has grown bigger. (Reyes, 11/1)
CNN: Despite Millions Using the 988 Mental Health Crisis Line, Majority Express Reluctance to Seek Help From It Again
The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline has received millions of calls, texts and online messages since its launch in the summer of 2022, but a new study suggests that the mental health resource is far from reaching its full potential. People with severe psychological distress were more likely than others to have heard of 988 and to have used the lifeline, according to research published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open. But overall, only a quarter of people said they would be very likely turn to 988 in the future if they or a loved one were experiencing a mental health crisis or suicidality – and less than a third of people with severe psychological distress who had already tried the lifeline were very likely to use it again. (McPhillips, 10/31)
NPR: The United States Has a Higher Gun Violence Death Rate Than Many Countries Around the World
The U.S. has the 28th-highest rate of deaths from gun violence in the world: 4.31 deaths per 100,000 people in 2021. That was more than seven times as high as the rate in Canada, which had 0.57 deaths per 100,000 people — and about 340 times higher than in the United Kingdom, which had 0.013 deaths per 100,000. The numbers come from a massive database maintained by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which tracks lives lost in every country, in every year, by every possible cause of death. (Aizenman, 10/31)
The Wall Street Journal: Biden Administration in Conflict with Insurers Regarding Mental Health Care Coverage
Many consumers with insurance are forced to pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars a year on mental-health care despite a 15-year-old law that is supposed to make such treatment as affordable and accessible as any other type of medical care. Now the Biden administration wants to impose new requirements on insurers that it says would reduce out-of-pocket costs for mental-health care and substance-use-disorder treatment. The insurance industry is firing back, arguing the proposal would drive up prices and set impossible-to-meet standards. (Armour, 10/29)
Bay Area Reporter: Study Discovers Increased Risk of Suicidal Behavior Among Queer Latino Youth
A study of LGBTQ Hispanic and Latino young people found that they were more likely to report depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts than young people of other ethnicities — and struggled with accessing mental health care. The report — "The Mental Health and Well-Being of Latinx LGBTQ Young People" published by West Hollywood-based The Trevor Project — also found that those who reported supportive environments and stronger connections to their cultures had lowered risks. (Ferrannini, 10/31)
KFF Health News: Fathers Propel Expansion of California’s Paid Family Leave Program
In a sign of growing domestic equality, more new dads are claiming paid family leave to bond with their babies and support their partners during the first weeks of parenthood. In California, which has one of the nation’s oldest programs, men filed 44% of bonding claims last year, up from 31% a decade prior, according to state statistics. About 119,300 California men took paid family leave for bonding in the state’s fiscal year that ended at the end of June, up by 19%, or nearly 20,000, from 2020, according to California’s Employment Development Department. The number of women taking state leave for bonding has held relatively steady at roughly 150,000 since 2019. (Reese, 10/30)