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Not a subscriber? Sign up | | | | Daily Edition | | | More News From Across The State Times of San Diego: Board Of Supervisors Chair Requests Notifications Be Sent To All At-Risk San Diegans
More than a million residents of San Diego County are in imminent danger of losing access to healthcare, housing, and even food as cuts to life-saving programs by the Trump administration continue. Terra Lawson-Remer, the San Diego County Board of Supervisor's acting chair, called on the county Monday to send a "notification of funding at risk" to all federally funded program beneficiaries, many of whom may be unaware of the impending threats to these services. (Binkowski, 3/10) The Hill: Donald Trump Proposes Cutting ACA Enrollment Period, Ending 'Dreamer' Coverage
The Trump administration is proposing to shorten ObamaCare's annual open enrollment period by a month, a move the administration said is aimed at helping consumers pick the right plan. According to a proposed rule released Monday, open enrollment would run from Nov. 1 through Dec. 15, instead of through Jan. 15. (Weixel, 3/10) Bay Area Reporter: HIV Confab Opens In San Francisco With Call To Action
The Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), a major annual HIV conference, opened in San Francisco Sunday, March 9, under a cloud of uncertainty in the face of the Trump administration's attacks on government health and science efforts. While speakers at Sunday's opening session acknowledged the threat, they also offered words of encouragement and issued calls to action. (Highleyman, 3/10) Becker's Hospital Review: How A Terminal Diagnosis Reshaped This Physician's View Of Medicine
Last spring, Bryant Lin, MD, a professor of medicine at Stanford (Calif.) University and primary care physician, was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer that had metastasized to his liver, bones and brain. Despite the bleak prognosis, Dr. Lin turned his diagnosis into a lesson for students and leaders alike. Once a week, Dr. Lin teaches students about medicine both as a physician and a patient. His course covers topics including having difficult conversations amid uncertainties in diagnosis and the psychological impact of cancer. (Taylor, 3/10) Becker's Hospital Review: How CHLA Fosters Nursing Excellence: 5 Qs With Dr. Kelly Johnson
Four nursing units at Children's Hospital Los Angeles recently earned Beacon Awards for Excellence, a national recognition of superior patient outcomes and nursing excellence. Behind this achievement is a culture that prioritizes leadership development, staff well-being and empowers frontline teams to lead quality improvement initiatives, according to Kelly Johnson, PhD, RN, senior vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer. (Carbajal, 3/10) Fierce Healthcare: 'Medical Gaslighting' Tops Patient Safety Concerns For 2025, ECRI Warns
Clinicians' increased burdens are making it harder for valid concerns voiced by patients, their families and their caretakers to be acknowledged, raising the risk of missed diagnoses and exacerbated health disparities, the ECRI warned in a new report. An annual ranking of the top 10 patient safety concerns, released Monday by the healthcare quality and safety group and its Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) affiliate, places dismissed concerns above other issues like insufficient artificial intelligence governance and medical misinformation. (Muoio, 3/10) ProPublica: What A Wrongful Death Lawsuit Reveals About Lincare, America's Largest Oxygen Provider
Lincare, a giant respiratory-device supplier with a long history of fraud settlements and complaints about dismal service, is facing its latest legal challenge: a lawsuit that claims its failures caused the death of a 27-year-old man with Down syndrome. The case, set to go to trial in state court in St. Louis on March 17, centers on the 2020 death of LeQuon Marquis Vernor, who suffered from severe obstructive sleep apnea and relied on a Lincare-supplied BiPAP machine to help him breathe while sleeping. The lawsuit, filed by his mother, accuses Lincare of negligence after the company took seven days to respond to her report that the device had stopped working. (Elkind, 3/10) San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Struggles To House Homeless People Despite More Shelter Beds
San Francisco has substantially more shelter beds and permanent housing for homeless people per capita than many other major jurisdictions across the country. Yet the city is struggling to meet the needs of its homeless residents both on the streets and in shelters. When compared to other jurisdictions, San Francisco reportedly has the highest percentage of shelter guests with severe mental illness or addiction. But shelter operators say they don't have enough funding or resources to support their high-needs clients or to address street conditions outside their buildings. (Angst, 3/11) Times of San Diego: House Republicans Cut Annual Cross-Border Sewage Infrastructure Funding In Half
The House Republican budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) includes a significant reduction in funding for cross-border sewage infrastructure, according to Rep. Scott Peters' office. The budget cuts the International Boundary and Water Commission's (IBWC) construction funding from $156 million to $78 million, affecting the operations and maintenance of vital wastewater treatment facilities, including the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant (SBIWTP) in San Diego. (Ireland, 3/10) The 19th: Hospitals Continuing Intersex Surgeries As They Stop Gender-Affirming Care
For many Americans, planning a doctor's appointment comes with logistical headaches: taking a day off from work; scheduling months in advance; dealing with insurance coverage and related costs. For Emory Hufbauer, it also involves a seven-hour cross-country flight. Hufbauer is intersex, meaning they were born with sex characteristics that don't fit neatly into the binary of male or female. As an infant, they were subjected to procedures that assigned them a sex. They have long struggled to find health care needed as a result of these procedures in their state of Kentucky, where they advocate to bring that care and help others navigate it. (Rodriguez and Sosin, 3/10) The Washington Post: Doctors Say Trump's Orders Targeting Trans Patients Threaten Their Safety
Panic buttons, security cameras and active-shooter drills: Those are some of the ways doctors who treat transgender children have armed themselves when facing violent threats over the years. Now doctors say threats of violence are rising — along with fears of legal action — in the wake of Trump's Jan. 28 executive order that labeled gender transition care for minors a "dangerous trend" and "a stain on our Nation's history." Dozens of providers gave sworn affidavits as part of a lawsuit four states filed challenging the legality of Trump's executive order. (Parks, 3/9) Modern Healthcare: HHS Launches DEI Investigation Into 4 Medical Schools, Hospitals
The Health and Human Services Department is investigating four medical schools and hospitals on allegations of discrimination in their medical education, training or scholarship programs. The agency said Friday it received complaints the four HHS-backed institutions, which were not identified, allegedly chose participants based on race, sex, color or national origin, violating an executive order President Donald Trump signed Jan. 21, his second day in office. (DeSilva, 3/10) San Francisco Chronicle: Another Newsom Podcast Guest Blames Trans Rights For Dem's Loss
For the second episode in a row, Gov. Gavin Newsom's new podcast featured a conservative guest blaming Democrats' embrace of trans rights for their 2024 election loss. Michael Savage, a former nationally syndicated conservative talk radio host who in recent years has moved to podcasting, listed several reasons for the Democrats' defeat, including "vilifying the white male" and "illegals getting free care." But he said the biggest reason was transgender acceptance in schools. (Bollag, 3/10) Bloomberg: Trump Partially Blocked From Defunding USAID As Lawsuits Go On
A US judge ordered the Trump administration to undo some of its cuts to billions of dollars in foreign assistance programs through the US Agency for International Development, the latest turn in a legal fight that's likely to end up at the US Supreme Court. In a ruling Monday, US District Judge Amir Ali in Washington issued a mixed ruling on a an effort by a group of nonprofits to block the spending cuts. The ruling requires USAID to follow through on payments obligations under contracts with groups that provide food and other essential services to people across the globe. (Larson, 3/10) Axios: FTC Sues To Block Medical Device Coatings Deal
The Federal Trade Commission under President Trump is making its first move to challenge private equity in health care, by suing to block the $627 million acquisition of a maker of specialized coatings for catheters and other medical devices. It's the first such FTC action around M&A since Trump was sworn in and could signal continued regulatory scrutiny as private equity buys more health care firms. (Bettelheim, 3/10) The Washington Post: NIH To Terminate Or Limit Grants Related To Vaccine Hesitancy And Uptake
The National Institutes of Health will cancel or cut back dozens of grants for research on why some people are reluctant to be vaccinated and how to increase acceptance of vaccines, according to an internal email obtained by The Washington Post on Monday. The email, titled "required terminations — 3/10/25," shows that on Monday morning, the agency "received a new list … of awards that need to be terminated, today. It has been determined they do not align with NIH funding priorities related to vaccine hesitancy and/or uptake." (Johnson and Achenbach, 3/10) Politico: USDA Cancels $1B In Local Food Purchasing For Schools, Food Banks
The Agriculture Department has axed two programs that gave schools and food banks money to buy food from local farms and ranchers, halting more than $1 billion in federal spending. Roughly $660 million that schools and child care facilities were counting on to purchase food from nearby farms through the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program in 2025 has been canceled, according to the School Nutrition Association. (Brown, 3/10) The Washington Post: Two Federal Food Safety Panels Get Disbanded, Worrying Advocates
Two federal committees tasked with advising policymakers on food safety have been disbanded as part of the administration's cost-cutting and government-shrinking goals, according to advocates and one committee member. The elimination of the panels, whose members included experts from academia, industry and nonprofits, has raised alarms among some food-safety advocates, who point to large-scale outbreaks in recent years as a reason for needing even more attention and modern science around the issue. (Heil, 3/10) Bloomberg: Cargill Says US Can't Quit Seed Oils Despite RFK Jr.'s Criticism
Cargill Inc. said the US food industry can't fully replace seed oils as there aren't enough alternatives in the market. The world's largest commodities trader said the best substitutes for things like soybean and canola oil make up just a fraction of the total volumes needed by the industry. Science supports the health benefits of oilseeds, said Florian Schattenmann, Cargill's chief technology officer. (Hirtzer, 3/10) Bloomberg: Senators Say Kennedy Must Disclose Details On Drugmaker Meetings
Three senators are calling on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to disclose what he and President Donald Trump discussed with drugmakers during closed-door conversations. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden and Bernie Sanders sent a letter dated March 10 to Kennedy, who is a longtime critic of the pharmaceutical industry. They accused him of attending "unofficial, million-dollar dinners" with industry executives at Mar-a-Lago. (Muller and Garde, 3/10) Military.com: Supreme Court Upholds VA Court Decision Not To Review 'Benefit-Of-The-Doubt' Evidence In Veterans' Claims
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against two veterans who argued that their disability claims were unfairly denied because they did not receive favorable decisions when the evidence presented in their cases was equal. In a 7-2 decision, the court ruled that the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims is not required to review the Department of Veterans Affairs' application of the "benefit-of-the-doubt" rule in most decisions. The standard requires the VA to approve veterans' claims when the supporting evidence, either for or against approval, is close. (Kime, 3/10) ScienceNews: 5 Years After COVID-19 Became A Pandemic, Are We Ready For What's Next?
Five years ago, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Whether it still is depends on who you ask. There are no clear criteria to mark the end of a pandemic, and the virus that causes the disease — SARS-CoV-2 — continues evolving and infecting people worldwide. "Whether the pandemic ended or not is an intellectual debate," says clinical epidemiologist and long COVID researcher Ziyad Al-Aly of Washington University in St. Louis. "For the family that lost a loved one a week ago in the ICU, that threat is real. That pain is real. That loss is real." (Prillaman, 3/10) The New York Times: History Isn't Entirely Repeating Itself In Covid's Aftermath
Five years after Covid-19 shut down activities all over the world, medical historians sometimes struggle to place the pandemic in context. What, they are asking, should this ongoing viral threat be compared with? Is Covid like the 1918 flu, terrifying when it was raging but soon relegated to the status of a long-ago nightmare? (Kolata, 3/11) The New York Times: 30 Charts That Show How Covid Changed Everything In March 2020
Here's an incomplete collection of charts that capture that break — across the economy, health care, education, work, family life and more. (Bhatia and Cabreros, 3/9) Stat: Drug Overdoses Have Caused More U.S. Deaths Than Covid
The 2020s have inarguably been Covid-19's decade. Since the coronavirus outbreak was acknowledged as a pandemic exactly five years ago, the pandemic has killed well over 1 million Americans, derailed the global economy, and sparked political upheaval that continues today. It also yielded what many hail as the greatest scientific accomplishment in human history: the development of effective vaccines in under a year. Yet in dominating the early 2020s, Covid-19 also distracted from what is arguably a more significant public health emergency. Even at the height of the pandemic, more young Americans died of drug overdose than Covid. (Facher, 3/11) CNN: Federal Government No Longer Accepting Orders For Free Covid-19 Tests
The federal government program that provides free at-home Covid-19 tests says it is "not currently accepting orders," according to the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response website. It's not clear whether the program has shut down permanently. (Christensen, 3/10) The New York Times: Mutated DNA Restored To Normal In Gene Therapy Advance
Researchers have corrected a disease-causing gene mutation with a single infusion carrying a treatment that precisely targeted the errant gene. This was the first time a mutated gene has been restored to normal. The small study of nine patients announced Monday by the company Beam Therapeutics of Cambridge, Mass., involved fixing a spelling error involving the four base sequences — G, A, C and T — in DNA. (Kolata, 3/10) NPR: Scientists Are Engineering A Sense Of Touch For People Who Are Paralyzed
In 2014, engineering professor Chad Bouton got a lesson on the importance of touch. Bouton, an engineer at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research on Long Island, had developed a brain-computer interface that allowed a man living with paralysis to control one hand. (Hamilton, 3/10) | | | | | |
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