First Edition: January 30, 2020

Kaiser Health News: Appendicitis Is Painful — Add A $41,212 Surgery Bill To The Misery
Joshua Bates knew something was seriously wrong. He had a high fever, could barely move and felt a sharp pain in his stomach every time he coughed. The 28-year-old called his roommate, who rushed home that day in July 2018. The pair drove to the nearest emergency room, the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. After several tests, including a CT scan of his abdomen, the emergency team determined Bates had acute appendicitis. (Appleby, 1/29)

Kaiser Health News: Trump’s Latest Health Care Challenge: Gaining Voters’ Trust
Far more Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump’s handling of several high-profile health care issues than give him positive marks, underscoring the challenge the president faces in claiming health care as a political asset in his reelection bid. The findings, from the latest Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll, released Thursday, found Trump’s approval ratings on various health care topics — including how he has handled the cost of prescription drugs and protecting people with preexisting conditions — lag behind those on his overall job performance. (Pradhan, 1/30)

Kaiser Health News: A Guide To Following The Health Debate In The 2020 Elections
Health has been a top issue in the presidential campaign during the past year: Not only do the Democratic candidates disagree with President Donald Trump, but they also disagree among themselves. Voters have frequently complained that the debate has been confusing and hard to follow. Most of the attention so far has been focused on whether the U.S. should transition to a “Medicare for All” program that would guarantee coverage to all U.S. residents — and result in higher taxes for most people. But there is far more to the health debate than that. (Rovner, 1/30)

Kaiser Health News: Listen: Colorado Ski Area Opts For Novel Effort To Stop Avalanche Of Health Costs
Julie Rovner, the chief Washington correspondent for Kaiser Health News, joined WAMU’s “1A” host Todd Zwillich and Colorado Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway on Wednesday to talk about an innovative program to cut health care costs being used by Summit County, home to some of the state’s premier ski resorts. They also discussed how some states, including Colorado, are exploring sponsoring a health plan — or a public option — open to residents that could cut costs. They also took questions from listeners. (1/29)

Politico: ‘Block Grants’ No More: Trump’s Medicaid Overhaul Has New Name, Same Goals
The Trump administration will rebrand its Medicaid block grant program and look to safeguard the policy against an expected wave of legal challenges from patient advocates, according to two officials with knowledge of the plan set for release Thursday. The forthcoming block grant program comes with a new name — “Healthy Adult Opportunity” — but retains the original mission long sought by conservatives: allowing states to cap a portion of their spending on Medicaid, a radical change in how the safety net health program is financed. (Diamond and Roubein, 1/29)

The New York Times: As Other Democrats Feud, Bloomberg Hammers Trump On Health Care
It powered Democrats to recapture the House in the 2018 midterms: the fear that President Trump and Republicans would kill the Affordable Care Act and with it, protections for more than 50 million Americans with pre-existing medical conditions. Yet even as Mr. Trump and other Republicans continue to try to overturn the law in court, Democratic presidential candidates have not made the issue central to their campaigns. Instead they have spent much of their time on the debate stage arguing among themselves over “Medicare for all” and other proposals to expand health coverage. (Corasaniti and Goodnough, 1/29)

The New York Times: As Coronavirus Explodes In China, Countries Struggle To Control Its Spread
Australians flown home from Wuhan, China, will be quarantined on an island for two weeks. Americans, also evacuated from Wuhan, will be “temporarily housed” on an air base in California. And in South Korea, the police have been empowered to detain people who refuse to be quarantined. For countries outside China, the time to prevent an epidemic is now, when cases are few and can be isolated. They are trying to seize the moment to protect themselves against the coronavirus outbreak, which has reached every province in China, sickening more than 7,700 people and killing 170. (Grady, 1/29)

Reuters: Human Spread Of Virus In Three Countries Outside China Worrying: WHO Chief
The person-to-person spread of the new coronavirus in three countries – Germany, Vietnam and Japan – is worrying and will be considered by experts reconvened to consider declaring a global emergency, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. (1/29)

Reuters: Governments Should Decide On Any Evacuations From Virus Zones: WHO
It is for governments to decide whether to evacuate their nationals from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday. (1/29)

Reuters: WHO Panel To Reconvene On Thursday To Decide If Virus Global Emergency
The World Health Organization’s Emergency Committee will meet on Thursday, the third time in a week, to evaluate whether the new coronavirus spreading from China now constitutes an international emergency, the WHO said. “The Committee will advise the Director-General on whether the outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), and what recommendations should be made to manage it,” the WHO said in a statement issued in Geneva ahead of a news briefing by senior WHO expert Mike Ryan on return from China. (1/29)

Los Angeles Times: New Coronavirus Spreads As Readily As 1918 Spanish Flu
Chinese scientists racing to keep up with the spread of a novel coronavirus have declared the widespread outbreak an epidemic, revealing that in its early days at least, the disease’s reach doubled every week. By plotting the curve of that exponential growth and running it in reverse, researchers reckoned that the microbe sickening people across the globe has probably been passing from person to person since mid-December 2019. Scientists in China are also closing in on the source of the aggressive new germ — bats. (Healy, 1/29)

Stat: Limited Data May Be Skewing Assumptions About Severity Of Coronavirus Outbreak, Experts Say
Health officials in China, racing to try to contain a fast-growing coronavirus outbreak, are principally recording severe cases of disease, using a case definition that cannot capture patients with mild illness, according to experts familiar with the surveillance efforts. The approach, the experts told STAT, is likely resulting in both an underestimate in the total number of cases and flawed assumptions about fatality rates calculated by those who ignore the repeated caution that it’s too soon to do that math. (Branswell, 1/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Announces Coronavirus Task Force
President Trump announced a task force to address the fast-spreading coronavirus, which he said had been meeting daily since Monday. The task force is led by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and will include national security adviser Robert O’Brien, Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun and Domestic Policy Council Director Joseph Grogan, among others. It also includes top experts on infectious diseases. (Ballhaus, 1/29)

Reuters: Trump Says He Spoke To China’s Xi, U.S. Working Closely With China On Coronavirus
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping and the United States was working very closely with China on the coronavirus outbreak. “We’re very much involved with them right now on the virus that’s going around. … I spoke to President Xi. We’re working very closely with China,” Trump said at a White House ceremony to sign a new North American trade deal with Canada and Mexico. (1/29)

Politico: Trump Has So Far Dodged Becoming Face Of Coronavirus Crisis
President Donald Trump is trying something new with a global crisis: keeping quiet. The president, for now, is letting his public health experts take the spotlight on the Wuhan coronavirus — and hardly even tweeting about it — as the outbreak sends stocks tumbling, disrupts travel and stokes fears about a global pandemic. (Owermohle and Ehley, 1/29)

The Washington Post: U.S. Plans New Evacuation Flights As Coronavirus Cases In China Grow By More Than 1,000 Per Day
The United States has announced a new evacuation flights for U.S. citizens trapped in Wuhan, the epicenter of the growing coronavirus outbreak in China. The World Health Organization will reconvene its emergency committee Thursday to determine whether the coronavirus outbreak amounts to a public health emergency of international concern, as the total number of people infected in mainland China surpassed those infected with SARS during the 2002-2003 epidemic. (Denyer and Schemm, 1/30)

The New York Times: Face Mask Hoarders May Raise Risk Of Coronavirus Outbreak In The U.S.
Even though there are only five cases of Wuhan coronavirus in the United States, the mask hoarding has begun. Some pharmacies report being entirely sold out of masks. Some popular sellers on Amazon say deliveries will be delayed for weeks. Although masks actually do little to protect healthy people, the prospect of shortages created by panic buying worries some public health experts. (McNeil, 1/30)

The Associated Press: Do Masks Offer Protection From New Virus? It Depends
People around the world are buying up protective face masks in hopes of keeping the new virus from China at bay. Some companies have required them for employees. Schools in South Korea have told parents to equip their children with masks and hand sanitizer when they return from winter vacation. But do the masks work? It depends. (Johnson, 1/30)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Outbreak Tests World’s Dependence On China
The world is quickly realizing how much it depends on China. Apple is rerouting supply chains. Ikea is closing its stores and paying staff members to stay home. Starbucks is warning of a financial blow. Ford and Toyota will idle some of their vast Chinese assembly plants for an extra week. On Wednesday, British Airways and Air Canada suspended all flights to mainland China, and Delta joined the growing number of carriers reducing service. (Stevenson, 1/29)

The New York Times: Coronavirus In New York: Lunar New Year Events Canceled Over Fears
The Lunar New Year Chinese Temple Bazaar in Queens typically attracts hundreds of spectators who come to watch an array of dancers and artists. But this year, before the event, a paper cutting artist who had recently returned from Wuhan, China, told the organizers she was quarantining herself at home, as a precaution against the new coronavirus. A hand puppet company also pulled out, the organizers said in an interview. (Goldstein and Singer, 1/29)

The Wall Street Journal: An American Mother’s Desperate Attempt To Get Out Of Wuhan With Her Daughter
When Priscilla Dickey learned the U.S. government was planning an evacuation flight out of the Chinese city at the center of the largest quarantine zone in history, she was desperate to get a seat for her 8-year-old daughter, Hermione. Hermione was with her mother in Wuhan when authorities abruptly blocked transportation in and around the metropolis of 11 million people. The lockdown was China’s risky bid to slow the spread of a dangerous coronavirus—and Hermione had a fever. (Areddy, 1/29)

Los Angeles Times: Americans Clear Health Screening After Evacuting From Wuhan, China
The plane was the only way out of the besieged Chinese city, and Americans clamored for seats. A couple with a 7-year-old daughter did not receive the coveted call from officials offering them seats on the plane. A 65-year-old man’s phone rang, but he gave up his spot because others needed it more. According to some Americans trying to escape, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to who was tapped by U.S. officials to board the flight early Wednesday, whisking them away from Wuhan, the center of a respiratory virus outbreak that has killed at least 170 people in the last two months. (Chang, 1/29)

NPR: Worried About Catching The New Coronavirus? In The U.S., Flu Is A Bigger Threat
If you live in the U.S, your risk of contracting the new strain of coronavirus identified in China is exceedingly low. So far, the only people infected in the U.S. have traveled to the region in China where the virus first turned up in people. And, though that could change, one thing is for certain: Another severe respiratory virus that threatens lives — the influenza or “flu” virus — is very active in the U.S. right now. (Aubrey, 1/29)

Reuters: Johnson & Johnson Working On Vaccine For Deadly Coronavirus
Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday became the latest drugmaker to begin work on developing a vaccine for a new coronavirus that has already killed more than 100 people in China, as health authorities race to contain the outbreak. J&J said its vaccine programme would utilise the same technologies used to make its experimental Ebola vaccine, which is currently being administered in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. (1/29)

Stat: AI Becoming A Useful Tool In Coronavirus Response, Data Experts Say
Artificial intelligence is not going to stop the new coronavirus or replace the role of expert epidemiologists. But for the first time in a global outbreak, it is becoming a useful tool in efforts to monitor and respond to the crisis, according to health data specialists. In prior outbreaks, AI offered limited value, because of a shortage of data needed to provide updates quickly. But in recent days, millions of posts about coronavirus on social media and news sites are allowing algorithms to generate near-real-time information for public health officials tracking its spread. (Ross, 1/29)

Politico’s Pulse Check: The Wuhan Coronavirus: Understanding The Threat And Government Response
A former HHS emergency-response official explains what we know about the coronavirus outbreak and how the U.S. government fights to stop potential pandemics. (1/30)

The Wall Street Journal: No Shortage Of Controversies For New FDA Commissioner
New Food and Drug Administration commissioner Stephen M. Hahn rises at 4 a.m. each day for an hour of intensive strength and stamina training. On stressful days, he fits a second workout in during the late afternoon. Given the politically tricky waters ahead, those twice-daily workouts may soon become the norm. Dr. Hahn, 60, takes over an FDA under fire for failing to adequately respond to the health threat from growing use of e-cigarettes and vaping products. (Burton, 1/29)

The New York Times: American Life Expectancy Rises For First Time In Four Years
Life expectancy increased for the first time in four years in 2018, the federal government said Thursday, raising hopes that a benchmark of the nation’s health may finally be stabilizing after a rare and troubling decline that was driven by a surge in drug overdoses. Life expectancy is the most basic measure of the health of a society, and declines in developed countries are extremely unusual. But the United States experienced one from 2015 to 2017 as the opioid epidemic took its toll, worrying demographers who had not seen an outright decline since 1993, during the AIDS epidemic. (Tavernise and Goodnough, 1/30)

The Associated Press: For 1st Time In 4 Years, US Life Expectancy Rises — A Little
The latest calculation is for 2018 and factors in current death trends and other issues. On average, an infant born that year is expected to live about 78 years and 8 months, the CDC said. For males, it’s about 76 years and 2 months; for females 81 years and 1 month. For decades, U.S. life expectancy was on the upswing, rising a few months nearly every year. But from 2014 to 2017, it fell slightly or held steady. That was blamed largely on surges in overdose deaths and suicides. (1/30)

The Washington Post: U.S. Life Expectancy Ticks Up As Drug Fatalities And Cancer Deaths Drop
Despite the encouraging elements of the CDC mortality report, the broader pattern for American health remains sobering. Life expectancy improved by the tiniest of increments, from 78.6 to 78.7 years. That figure remains lower than the peak in U.S. life expectancy, at 78.9 years, in 2014. It is also identical to life expectancy in 2010, and it appears unlikely that U.S. longevity will show any significant improvement over the entire decade of the 2010s. The United States is continuing to fall behind similarly wealthy countries — a phenomenon that experts refer to as the U.S. “health disadvantage.” (Achenbach, 1/30)

Politico: U.S. Life Expectancy Increases For First Time In 4 Years
And while deaths from heroin and prescription opioids are down, public health officials are concerned by rising death rate from the synthetic opioid fentanyl — which increased 10 percent since 2017 — as well as cocaine and methamphetamine. The number of deaths involving psychostimulants like methamphetamine increased 22 percent, while deaths from cocaine, which can be laced with fentanyl, killed more than 14,000 people last year, up 5 percent from 2017 and more than double the number in 2015.Congress and Trump administration officials have started to address the surge of methamphetamine and cocaine deaths, but some experts say efforts should focus more broadly on addiction and less on a specific substance. (Ehley and Goldberg, 1/30)

NPR: Amid Dip In Drug Overdose Rates, Life Expectancy Climbed Slightly In 2018
“I think these numbers suggest that some positive news is starting to come out of the many efforts to try to stem the tide on overdoses,” says Kathryn McHugh, a psychologist at McClean Psychiatric Hospital and Harvard University. Those efforts include improving access to treatment for opioid use disorder and access to overdose rescue, she notes. But the new data “need to be interpreted with the utmost caution,” she says. “I don’t think we can interpret this as a win based on one year.” (Chatterjee, 1/30)

Reuters: Background Checks And Bump Stock Bans: 2020 Democrats On Gun Control
With more than 15,000 people killed by gun violence in the United States last year – not counting suicides – Democrats running for their party’s presidential nomination are pointing to inaction in Washington as evidence they should be chosen to run against Republican President Donald Trump. Here is a look at gun control positions taken by Trump and the Democrats vying to unseat him. (1/29)

The Associated Press: Insurer Anthem Underwhelms Wall Street With 2020 Forecast
Anthem is starting the new year by forecasting earnings that could miss expectations even after the health insurer books gains from a new business. The Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurer also reported on Wednesday earnings from the final quarter of 2019 that missed forecasts, and its stock dropped in midday trading. (1/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Anthem Falls On Weak Metric, Disappointing 2020 Guidance
The health insurer recorded a profit of $934 million, or $3.62 a share, in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared with $424 million, or $1.61 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted earnings were $3.88 a share, matching analysts’ expectations. Revenue was $27.41 billion, up from $23.37 billion. Anthem Chief Executive Gail Boudreaux said in a conference call that the company was delivering on its promised growth and was “poised for another year of success in 2020.” (Wilde Mathews and Sebastian, 1/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Cancer-Drug Giant Roche Posts Growth As Diversification Efforts Pay Off
New drugs for multiple sclerosis and hemophilia drove growth at Roche Holding last year, a sign the company’s efforts to move beyond cancer treatments are paying off. The Swiss health-care giant on Thursday said sales rose 8% to 61.5 billion Swiss francs ($63.2 billion) in 2019. Core operating profit, a closely watched measure that strips out some one-time items, rose 10% to 22.5 billion francs. Net income climbed 30% to 14.1 billion francs, partly because of an impairment charge in the prior-year. (Roland, 1/30)

Stat: Novartis Gene Therapy For Fatal Disease Delivers Strong Sales
Zolgensma, the Novartis gene therapy for infants and the world’s most expensive medicine, continues to perform well commercially, bringing in $186 million during the fourth quarter, topping analyst expectations on Wednesday. Last June, Novartis secured U.S. approval for Zolgensma as a one-time treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, a rare and deadly neurological disease. It carries a record price tag of $2.1 million, or an annualized cost of $425,000 per year for five years. (Feuerstein, 1/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Fitness Apps That Find A Way To Stick Around 
Fitness spending usually spikes in January, as the optimists among us kick off the new year by joining a gym. But few people stick with the program for long. By June, more than half of these new members will have dropped out. Although attrition remains stubbornly high across the industry, one fitness category is showing promise: On-demand, app-based fitness programs are retaining new customers longer than their brick and mortar counterparts, according to a new study by Cardlytics, a firm that tracks digital-spending habits of more than 128 million bank accounts. (Potkewitz, 1/29)

Reuters: Where The Purdue Pharma-Sackler Legal Saga Stands
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP and its controlling Sackler family have been negotiating with cities, counties and states on a proposed settlement worth an estimated $10 billion to resolve more than 2,600 lawsuits alleging they helped fuel the U.S. opioid crisis. Those negotiations could be complicated by a Reuters report on Tuesday that Purdue is the unidentified company that was involved in an alleged kickback scheme aimed at improperly boosting prescriptions of opioid medications, though it was not charged with wrongdoing and has said it is cooperating with Justice Department investigations. (1/29)

The Associated Press: Brain Injuries In Iraq Put Attention On Invisible War Wounds
The spotlight on brain injuries suffered by American troops in Iraq this month is an example of America’s episodic attention to this invisible war wound, which has affected hundreds of thousands over the past two decades but is not yet fully understood. Unlike physical wounds, such as burns or the loss of limbs, traumatic brain injuries aren’t obvious and may take time to diagnose. (1/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Lung-Cancer Screening Saves Heavy Smokers’ Lives, Study Finds
Screening for lung cancer reduces deaths among current and former heavy smokers, according to a new study published Wednesday that adds to the evidence supporting wider testing. The study, conducted by researchers in the Netherlands and Belgium and published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, found that scanning the lungs of heavy smokers reduced lung-cancer deaths by 24% in men and 33% in women over the course of a decade. (Abbott, 1/29)

NPR: Lab-Grown ‘Minibrains’ Are An Imperfect Model Of The Human Brain
Brain organoids, often called “minibrains,” have changed the way scientists study human brain development and disorders like autism. But the cells in these organoids differ from those in an actual brain in some important ways, scientists reported Wednesday in the journal Nature. (Hamilton, 1/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Southwest Flew Millions On Jets With Unconfirmed Maintenance Records, Government Report Says
A government report to be released in coming days says Southwest Airlines Co. failed to prioritize safety and the airline’s regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration, hasn’t done enough about it. Southwest pilots flew more than 17 million passengers on planes with unconfirmed maintenance records over roughly two years, and in 2019 smashed both wingtips of a jet on a runway while repeatedly trying to land amid gale-force winds, according to the Transportation Department report, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. (Pasztor and Sider, 1/30)

The Washington Post: What Is Chronic Inflammation, And What Can You Do About It?
We all had early experiences with inflammation: a splinter that turned the skin around it red, a sprained ankle that swelled and displayed disturbing bluish-black hues. We came to understand that these reactions, termed acute inflammation, are the body’s way of protecting us, by sending white blood cells to the site of an injury to ward off further damage, promote healing and fight infection. The five signs of acute inflammation — redness, heat, swelling, pain and loss of function — usually fade as the wound heals. (Burfoot, 1/29)

The Associated Press: Kansas Abortion Measure Advances In Tennessee Plan’s Shadow
Republican lawmakers in Kansas pushed a proposed anti-abortion amendment to the state constitution through the state Senate on Wednesday even as abortion rights advocates argued that it would lead to a ban on most abortions like a measure being pursued in Tennessee. The Kansas proposal, aimed at overturning a state Supreme Court decision last year protecting abortion rights, is modeled on a change that Tennessee voters approved in their state’s constitution in 2014. (1/29)

The Wall Street Journal: City Says It Could Pay Extra $1.1 Billion Into Medicaid Under Cuomo Proposal
New York City and the state’s counties could be forced to pay over $800 million more a year under a proposal by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to change how New York funds its Medicaid program, which municipal officials around the state say has prompted confusion and concern among them. The Democratic governor last week proposed that localities should once again be on the hook for some of the growth in the cost of the Medicaid program, which provides health-care services to more than six million people. (Vielkind, 1/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Harvard Chemistry Chairman Under Investigation Is A Giant Of His Field
The Harvard University professor arrested and charged with lying to U.S. authorities about taking millions of dollars from the Chinese government is considered one of the fathers of a specialized field in nanotechnology. Charles M. Lieber has led a research lab at Harvard for nearly 30 years and generated in excess of $15 million in grants from government agencies since 2008. He was rated the top chemist of the aughts by one analytics organization that rated academic productivity. (Belkin, 1/29)

The Associated Press: House GOP Lawmakers Try To End Transgender Right In Iowa Law
Republican lawmakers on Wednesday proposed a bill to amend the Iowa Civil Rights Act by removing protections against discrimination for transgender people. Iowa law currently prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, ancestry and disability. Gender identity was added by lawmakers in 2007 when Democrats regained control of the Iowa Legislature and held the governor’s office with the election of Gov. Chet Culver. (Pitt, 1/29)

The Associated Press: Bill To Allow Physician-Assisted Suicide Sparks Discourse
Opponents of assisted suicide held a press conference Wednesday to reject legislation allowing patients with terminal conditions to request a life-ending substance from a physician. While supporters of the proposal say the choice to end one’s own life is a human right, speakers at the event called the practice unethical. (Ringle, 1/29)

The Washington Post: Video Shows Ottawa County Jail Staff Mocking Dying Oklahoma Inmate Terrall Ellis
From an isolation cell in the Ottawa County Jail, Terral Ellis begged for someone to help him. He could not feel his legs and he could not breathe, the 26-year-old told jail staff and the on-site nurse at the Miami, Okla., facility. It felt, he said, like his back was broken and he was bleeding internally. “I think I’m dying,” he said just after 10 a.m. on Oct. 22, 2015. (Mettler and Usero, 1/29)

Los Angeles Times: Homeless HHH Housing Map: Where Is It Being Built?
Tracking the city’s progress. (1/29)