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China’s business leaders know better than to argue with Beijing. Leave the politics to the Communist Party, they long ago concluded, and the government will let them make money in peace. A vicious viral outbreak has upended that 51��Ƶ. China’s typically supercharged economy has ground to a near standstill as the authorities battle a coronavirus that has killed more than 2,000 people and sickened tens of thousands more. Hundreds of millions of people now live essentially in isolation, as roadblocks seal off entire towns and the local authorities stop companies from reopening. (Bradsher, 2/20)

Infectious diseases experts are losing confidence in the accuracy of China’s count of cases of the novel coronavirus, pointing toward health officials’ shifting definition of cases over time. Confusion over how China is counting cases of infections is making it harder to know how coronavirus is spreading, even as China is officially reporting that the numbers of new cases reported in recent days have fallen sharply. Many suspect the decline may be attributed in part to shifting case definitions. Earlier this month, China broadened the criteria for newly diagnosed cases in Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, then reversed itself. (Branswell, 2/20)

Authorities in Hubei province reported good news Thursday: There were only 349 new coronavirus cases the previous day, the lowest tally in weeks. The bad — and puzzling — news? Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, reported 615 new cases all by itself. As Chinese leaders and state media strike a coordinated note this week about the government’s ability to contain the outbreak, inconsistencies and sudden changes in official data are leaving experts — and journalists — struggling to plot meaningful trends, or even place any confidence in the figures coming from government. (Shih and Berger, 2/20)

China reported another fall in new virus cases Friday as health officials expressed continued optimism over containment of the outbreak that has caused more than 2,200 deaths but has grown elsewhere. Containment of the illness has been a struggle far from the epicenter in central China. South Korea's capital banned street rallies and the government sent help to a city where cases have surged. Hong Kong reported a new infection in a police officer. (Moritsugu, 2/20)

A handful of prisons reported nearly 500 new cases, a significant portion of the more than 1,100 new cases reported in mainland China on Friday — and a marked increase after several days of declines. Tests at a prison in eastern Shandong province showed 207 out of 2,077 inmates and staff were infected, and the provincial justice department’s Communist Party secretary was dismissed as a result, the province announced. Another jail in Zhejiang province found 34 cases. Hubei province, at the center of the outbreak, said Friday it found 220 new cases inside penitentiaries. (Shih, Denyer and Armus, 2/21)

The coronavirus epidemic has shined a spotlight on another simmering crisis in China's healthcare system: a critical shortage of doctors. Rising demand for health care has far outpaced the increase in the supply of doctors. Between 2005 and 2018, the number of fully licensed doctors nearly doubled, but the number of hospital admissions nearly quadrupled, according to Chinese government data. The result is a vicious cycle, doctors and industry consultants say. (Harney, 2/21)

A coronavirus patient initially discharged following recovery in southwestern Sichuan province's Chengdu city has been readmitted after testing positive again during a quarantine period at home, the city's public health clinical center said on Friday. Similar cases have been reported in other regions, the center said in a statement. (2/21)

Pro-democracy protesters have all but vanished from the streets of Hong Kong over the past month as residents avoid the new coronavirus, but the outbreak has broadened discontent with the city's leadership and China's influence on the financial hub. Some business leaders and pro-Beijing politicians have joined pro-democracy and union figures in attacking Carrie Lam's administration for what they see as an uncoordinated response to the virus and its refusal to seal the border with mainland China, which might have prevented infections. (Wu, 2/20)

Weeks after the novel coronavirus crisis began in December, there is still widespread confusion over the exact number of cases reported in China and whether the epidemic is finally stabilizing at the outbreak's epicenter of Hubei province. On Thursday, China announced just 394 new confirmed cases, the lowest number of daily infections reported in weeks. But on Friday, the confirmed number of cases in mainland China increased to 889, according to the country's National Health Commission. (Woodyatt, Kottasova, Griffiths and Regan, 2/21)

In the wee hours of a rainy Monday, more than a dozen buses sat on the tarmac at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Inside, 328 weary Americans wearing surgical masks and gloves waited anxiously to fly home after weeks in quarantine aboard the Diamond Princess, the luxury liner where the novel coronavirus had ­exploded into a shipwide epidemic. But as the buses idled, U.S. officials wrestled with troubling news. New test results showed that 14 passengers were infected with the virus. The U.S. State Department had promised that no one with the infection would be allowed to board the planes. A decision had to be made. Let them all fly? Or leave them behind in Japanese hospitals? (Sun, Bernstein, Mahtani and Achenbach, 2/20)

Eleven Americans who were brought to the U.S. from a quarantined cruise ship have been moved to hospitals, because delayed Japanese test results showed they had the new virus that caused an outbreak in China, officials said Thursday. Five other people from the ship have shown symptoms of the virus and have also been taken to hospitals, said Scott Pauley, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman. (Johnson, 2/20)

everal people are exhibiting minor symptoms but others are not showing any symptoms, the release said. Bert Kelly, a CDC spokesman, told CNN that the agency has verified the results, bringing the total of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States to 26. The US Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness Response asked UNMC early Monday to take in 13 patients who had either tested positive, or had a high likelihood of testing positive, for the novel coronavirus.(Chavez and Silverman, 2/20)

Evacuees who boarded buses to the airport on Sunday had been screened by two U.S. doctors who flew to Japan last week, said one of the doctors, James Lawler, an infectious disease physician. The doctors evaluated passengers’ possible symptoms and ability to endure a 10-hour flight to the U.S. on chartered cargo jets, he said. The pair of physicians lacked time and equipment to seek coronavirus tests for all disembarking Americans, said Dr. Lawler, who works with Nebraska Medicine, a network of hospitals and clinics affiliated with the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where he is co-director of the Global Center for Health Security. “It wasn’t an option,” he said. They finished evaluations shortly before buses left for the airport, he said, leaving them to decontaminate their gear before jumping in a cab that defied one-way roads to deliver the doctors in time to fly. (Evans, 2/20)

Expanded screening for the coronavirus has been postponed amid issues with a test developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Although the Trump administration had planned to expand screening to various state and local public health labs, only three of more than 100 such labs nationwide have verified th e CDC’s test for use, Politico reported. (Bukryk, 2/20)

The delay has also hampered CDC’s plan to screen samples collected by its national flu-surveillance network for the coronavirus, according to Peter Kyriacopoulos, APHL's senior director of public policy. CDC hopes to use public health labs in Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle to screen samples that test negative for the flu and other common respiratory viruses for the coronavirus. CDC confirmed the problems with the coronavirus test, and with using its flu-surveillance network to screen for the virus. But the agency declined to answer further questions on the matter. (Lim, 2/20)

Japanese officials defended their handling of cruise-ship virus victims after the first two passenger deaths were reported—one a woman in her 80s who had a fever for a week before getting to a hospital. South Korea, meanwhile, reported its first death from the Covid-19 coronavirus, while confirmed cases began to mount in Beijing and Iran announced emergency measures Thursday to stem the spread of the virus there after two people diagnosed with the illness died in the central city of Qom. (Inada and Mendell, 2/21)

When the Chinese government blocked most travel into and out of the city at the center of the Covid-19 outbreak in late January, many public health experts took to social media and op-ed pages to decry the measure as not only draconian and a violation of individual rights but also as ineffective: This largest quarantine in history — the city, Wuhan, has a population of 11 million, and the lockdown has been expanded — would have little effect on the course of the epidemic, they argued. As the U.S. and other countries imposed travel restrictions, even the World Health Organization questioned whether they were a good idea. But early evidence is causing some disease fighters to reconsider. (Begley, 2/21)

What's it like living with a coronavirus infection, isolated in a biocontainment unit? For Carl Goldman, diagnosed this week in Nebraska, his condition doesn't feel any different from a typical cold, he told NPR's Noel King. But the treatment is unusual: Doctors visit him each day wearing hazmat suits, and hospital staff wave at him from behind double-sealed windows. (Renken, 2/20)

The first Americans quarantined after evacuation from Wuhan, China, the center of this winter's coronavirus outbreak, are now beginning to settle back into normal routines. For 24-year-old Daniel Wethli, a history buff who majored in philosophy as an undergrad, leaving Wuhan last month at the urging of the U.S. State Department was bittersweet. His family was glad to hear he was safe and headed home as the virus spread through the city he'd moved to as a Fulbright scholar in December. (Neighmond, 2/20)

Tao Warren has been alone and under quarantine at home for nearly two weeks after returning from visiting her father in China. Health officials imposed the precautionary measures on her when she returned to the United States on Feb. 7. She has not had any symptoms of coronavirus. (Kohler, 2/20)

Hundreds of people who recently traveled from China back home to the Bay Area are quarantining themselves under the watch of local public health officials in an unprecedented national effort to slow and possibly stop the spread of the new coronavirus in the United States. Authorities have asked about 6,700 people in California to isolate and monitor themselves for symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus, according to the California Department of Public Health. (Allday, Moench and Ho, 2/20)

South Korea said on Friday that the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus infections rose to 156, a near tripling over three days. Among the 52 new cases reported on Friday, 41 are in Daegu, a city of about two and half million people in the southeastern part of the country, and the surrounding region, South Korean disease control officials said in a statement. Among those, 39 were connected to a church called Shincheonji. (2/20)

The spike forced officials to focus on steps to contain the domestic spread of the disease, not just its entry from abroad. Most of the new cases have been reported since Wednesday. The increase, especially in and around Daegu city in the southeast, has raised fears the outbreak is overwhelming the region’s medical system. Many of the cases have been linked to a church in the city. (2/21)

Ukraine’s effort to quarantine more than 70 people evacuated from China over the new coronavirus outbreak plunged into chaos Thursday as local residents opposing the move hurled stones at the evacuees and clashed with police. Officials denounced the violence and the country’s health minister pledged to join the evacuees’ quarantine for two weeks in a bid to reassure protesters who fear they’ll be infected. (2/20)

It’s the third month of the coronavirus outbreak, and investors still don’t know whether the first-ever pandemic-insurance policy will pay out. The World Bank issued pandemic-catastrophe bonds in 2017, a novel test of the ability to insure against global epidemics. The issuance marked an effort to expand the use of catastrophe bonds—financial instruments that were designed to help investors bet against natural disasters like hurricanes—to a new category of global risks. (Friedman, 2/20)

The coronavirus that originated in China has spread fear and anxiety around the world. But while the novel virus has largely spared one vulnerable group — children — it appears to pose a particular threat to middle-aged and older adults, particularly men. This week, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention published the largest analysis of coronavirus cases to date. Although men and women have been infected in roughly equal numbers, researchers found, the death rate among men was 2.8 percent, compared with 1.7 percent among women. (Rabin, 2/20)

The coronavirus spreading from China has sickened at least 73,000 people and killed at least 2,000, setting in motion a global health emergency. But humans aren’t the only species infected. Coronaviruses attack a variety of birds and mammals. The new virus seems to have leapt from wildlife to humans in a seafood and meat market in Wuhan, China, where live animals were slaughtered and sold as food. (Nuwer, 2/19)

Rain was falling on the night of Jan. 18, so the windows of the Tokyo party boat were shut. Inside were about 90 guests of a local taxi association who were celebrating the new year as the vessel floated down the Sumida River. Also on board, unbeknown to them, was a coronavirus capable of spreading ferociously. It did just that. A driver in his 70s soon fell ill with fever; he later tested positive. The same day as his diagnosis, his mother-in-law died; she also was infected. Officials then discovered that 10 others from the boat were, too, including an employee who had served passengers from Wuhan, China. Still more who did not attend the party caught the virus after coming into contact with those who did. (Wee and Inoue, 2/20)

You might have heard that the fear of a new virus from China is spreading faster than the actual virus. From earnest officials trying to calm a building panic. From your spouse. From the know-it-all who rattles off the many much more likely ways you’re going to die: smoking, car accidents, the flu. None of it seems to matter. (Klug, 2/20)

In the 14th century, Europe had descended into chaos. In a six-year span, a disease — marked by swollen lymph nodes in the armpit, groin, or neck — as much as halved Europe’s population. At the time, Jewish people were scapegoated for the pestilence: One incident in present-day France saw 1,000 Jews burned alive after the group was accused of poisoning wells. More than 500 years later, scientists had yet to crack the real story of how the seemingly indiscriminate disease, called bubonic plague, moved through society. By the time a resurgence made its way to San Francisco in 1900, writes journalist Marilyn Chase in “The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco,” the best theories science offered included transmission via dirt, food, and miasma — a now disproved idea that disease spread through tainted air. (Peryer, 2/13)

In New York City, a man assaults a woman wearing a face mask, calling her a "diseased b****." On a Los Angeles subway, a man proclaims Chinese people are filthy and says "every disease has ever came from China." Rampant ignorance and misinformation about the novel coronavirus, experts say, has led to racist and xenophobic attacks against fellow Americans or anyone in the United States who looks Asian. (Yan, Chen and Naresh, 2/20)

A new analysis published in the journal Lancet adds some empirical heft to an argument many progressives have been making for years: A national single-payer health-care system would save tens of thousands of lives each year — and hundreds of billions of dollars. If you watched last night’s Democratic debate in Nevada you might have heard Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) cite “a major study [that] came out from Yale epidemiologist[s] in Lancet, one of the leading medical publications in the world” in support of his Medicare-for-all plan. He was talking about this study, which was just published last week. (Ingraham, 2/20)

The government-run health plan endorsed by Sanders would so radically transform the health care system that it’s unlikely to be enacted swiftly should he became president, even if Democrats also controlled Congress. That may not matter in Minnesota, a traditionally Democratic state awash in health system work, including the highest percentage of insurance-related and medical device jobs in the country. (Newkirk, 2/21)

Kaiser Health News: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: The Labor Pains Of ‘Medicare For All’

Labor unions are divided over whether to endorse a Democratic candidate for president in 2020 — and, if so, whom to choose. Some unions are firmly behind the “Medicare for All” plans being pushed by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. But the influential Culinary Workers Union in Nevada declined to endorse any candidate, with members worried about what might replace the generous benefits they won by bargaining away wage increases. (2/20)

The U.S. Supreme Court has a “greater than 50% likelihood” of overturning the Affordable Care Act in the next two years, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen warned recently, a reality she says should force candidates to focus on health care this election year. At a meeting of New Hampshire health care stakeholders at the New Hampshire Medical Society in Concord last week, Shaheen said that a lawsuit against the law, often referred to as “Obamacare,” should land at the Supreme Court by 2021. (DeWitt, 2/20)

The U.S. Indian Health Service says it can’t disclose a report that identifies the officials responsible for mishandling a government pediatrician who abused Native American boys for decades, citing a law meant to protect medical reviews. That stance has angered relatives of the pediatrician’s victims, tribal members and former agency employees who hoped the report would provide a public reckoning and greater accountability for those who didn’t do enough to protect Native American children. (Weaver and Rosch, 2/20)

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it plans to regulate two nonstick and stain-resistant compounds in the drinking water amid growing concerns the chemicals found in everything from pizza boxes to carpet pose a health hazard. The agency is targeting a class of chemicals known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. It will regulate the compounds, PFOA and PFOS, which are among the oldest chemicals in this class and have been phased out in the United States. It also plans to research whether other PFAS chemicals will be added to the list. (Casey, 2/20)

After nearly a dozen years moving through the U.S. visa system, Sai Kyaw's brother and sister and their families were at the finish line: a final interview before they could leave Myanmar to join him in Massachusetts and work at his restaurant. Then a dramatic turn in U.S. immigration policy halted their plans. The interview was postponed, and it's not clear when, or whether, it will be rescheduled. (Marcello and Tareen, 2/20)

The mother of a U.S. Navy Reservist who killed himself outside the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin last year has filed an $8.2 million wrongful death claim against the Veterans Affairs Department. Rhonda Wilson said a VA doctor abruptly stopped refilling an opioid painkiller prescription for her 28-year-old son, Gary Pressley, causing him to go into a painful withdrawal. (Redmon, 2/20)

For decades, discovering novel antibiotics meant digging through the same patch of dirt. Biologists spent countless hours screening soil-dwelling microbes for properties known to kill harmful bacteria. But as superbugs resistant to existing antibiotics have spread widely, breakthroughs were becoming as rare as new places to dig. Now, artificial intelligence is giving scientists a reason to dramatically expand their search into databases of molecules that look nothing like existing antibiotics. (Ross, 2/20)

For the second time this month, Gilead Sciences (GILD) has lost a bid to invalidate patents owned by the U.S. government for using the Truvada pill to prevent HIV, which has been at the center of controversy over its cost and the extent to which taxpayer dollars funded key research. The Patent Trial and Appeals Board ruled Gilead failed to demonstrate it was likely to win its argument for overturning two patents held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which helped fund academic work into HIV prevention that later formed the basis for the pill, also known as PrEP. (Silverman, 2/20)

When Ed Stein signed up for Medicare eight years ago, the insurance choice seemed like a no-brainer. Mr. Stein, a Denver retiree, could choose original, fee-for-service Medicare or its private managed-care alternative, Medicare Advantage. He was a healthy and active 65-year-old, and he picked Advantage for its extra benefits. “The price was the same, I liked the access to gyms, and the drug plan was very good,” he recalled. After a pause, he added: “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be facing a crisis like the one I’m having now.” (Miller, 2/21)

If you’re counting on working past your 65th birthday, be sure to consider how Medicare may factor into your plans — even if you already have health insurance through your job. While workers at companies with fewer than 20 workers generally must sign up for Medicare at age 65, people working for larger companies typically have choices: They can stick with their group plan and delay Medicare without facing penalties down the road, drop the company option in favor of Medicare or go with a combination of the two. (2/19)

The CMS Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation on Thursday proposed a three-year extension for the comprehensive care for joint replacement model. The proposed rule seeks to change the definition of an episode to include outpatient hip and knee replacements. The agency also wants to modify how it calculates the basis for the target price by using the most recent year of claims data instead of the last three years, among other changes. (Brady, 2/20)

Kaiser Health News: Trump’s Medicaid Chief Labels Medicaid ‘Mediocre.’ Is It?

The Trump administration’s top Medicaid official has been increasingly critical of the entitlement program she has overseen for three years. Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has warned that the federal government and states need to better control spending and improve care to the 70 million people on Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for the low-income population. (Galewitz, 2/21)

Frustrated with rising provider prices, nearly three quarters of self-insured employers favor hospital rate regulation, according to a new survey by the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions. The survey of 90 mid-size and large employers also found that a third see Democratic proposals for a Medicare public option plan as very helpful or somewhat helpful for their employee health benefit strategies. Another 29% were neutral on that approach. (Meyer, 2/20)

Accountable care organizations are claiming they don't have all the information needed to decide if they want to participate in the direct contracting options from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation even though the deadline to apply for the implementation period is days away. The application window to participate in the implementation period of the direct contracting models closes Feb. 25, but in a letter to the Innovation Center, the National Association of ACOs claims specific information about benchmarking, risk adjustment and capitated payments haven't yet been released. (Castellucci, 2/20)

The waiting rooms at OSF HealthCare’s clinics are pretty standard—magazines, TVs and chairs—except for one detail: iPads. Patients who check in for primary-care appointments are encouraged to use the tablet to fill out a short 14-question survey that assesses their likelihood of facing challenges with 10 domains of social determinants of health, such as food, transportation or financial insecurity. It’s not what many patients expect when waiting to see their primary-care doctor, particularly in rural Illinois, where many of OSF’s clinics are located. (Cohen, 2/15)

Georgia lawmakers are in intense talks to reduce surprise medical bills for people with individual insurance plans. A state House bill that appeared headed for a big vote has been sent back to committee. A sister bill has passed in a Senate committee after contentious exchanges. (Hart, 2/20)

"A ban at six weeks of pregnancy means many of our patients would lose their right to have an abortion before they even know they're pregnant," said Shannon Brewer, director of Jackson Women's Health Organization, the state's only abortion provider. "Most of our patients are past that point. Some have spent weeks saving money for the procedure and have driven hundreds of miles to reach us." Mississippi is one of seven states that passed an abortion ban in 2019, all aimed at providing a legal challenge to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized the procedure in 1973. (Kelly, 2/20)

Mississippi's controversial "fetal heartbeat" ban, an effective six-week ban on abortion, was just struck down by a federal judge, according to a spokesperson for the Center for Reproductive Rights, the law firm that challenged the state law. (Smith, 2/20)

Florida lawmakers passed a bill Thursday that requires anyone under 18 to receive parental consent for abortions. The bill is expected to be signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) who asked lawmakers to send him it during his State of the State speech last month, according to The Associated Press. (Klar, 2/20)

Two of the last remaining anti-abortion Democrats in the House are facing competitive primaries next month, raising questions about the future for Democrats who diverge with their party on an issue at the center of the country’s culture wars. “More and more the party is sending a message that if you are pro-life you aren’t welcome,” said Illinois Rep. Dan Lipinski. “Look, we want to defeat Donald Trump. We can’t keep pushing people out of the party.” (Akin and Bowman, 2/20)

Most people who check in to residential treatment facilities to recover from opioid use disorder won't be given medicines proven to help combat addiction, a U.S. study suggests. Doctors widely agree that the most effective treatment for opioid abuse includes anti-addiction medicines like naltrexone, buprenorphine or methadone. But only 15% of patients in residential drug treatment centers got these medicines in 2015, the study found. (Rapaport, 2/20)

McKesson Corp. and two other opioid distributors have sweetened a settlement offer by proposing to pay more than $1 billion in legal fees for states, cities and counties suing them over their handling of the highly addictive painkillers, according to people familiar with the talks. McKesson, Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Corp. say the proposal would free up money for treatment and other social services strained by the U.S. opioid crisis, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to discuss the negotiations publicly. (Feeley, 2/20)

Kaiser Health News: Listen: Missouri Efforts Show How Hard It Is To Treat Pain Without Opioids

KHN Midwest correspondent Lauren Weber speaks with KBIA’s Sebastián Martínez Valdivia about the challenges Missouri faces in trying to treat chronic pain without opioids. Weber had reported that only about 500 of Missouri’s roughly 330,000 adult Medicaid beneficiaries used a new, alternative pain management plan to stem opioid overprescribing in the program’s first nine months. Meanwhile, 109,610 Missouri Medicaid patients received opioid prescriptions last year. (2/20)

It may end up being a bad flu season for kids, but early signs suggest the vaccine is working OK. The vaccine has been more than 50% effective in preventing flu illness severe enough to send a child to the doctor's office, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. Health experts consider that pretty good. The vaccines are made each year to protect against three or four different kinds of flu virus. The ingredients are based on predictions of what strains will make people sick the following winter. It doesn't always work out. (Stobbe, 2/20)

The beginning of the US flu season was dominated by influenza B/Victoria, but since December, cases of H1N1 flu have increased. Despite the protection, the authors said markers of severe illness, including laboratory-confirmed flu-associated hospitalization rates among children and adolescents, are higher than in recent seasons, including the severe 2017-18 season. The authors also noted that the 92 flu-associated deaths in children are the most at this point in the season since reporting began in 2004-05, other than the 2009 pandemic season, and stress the importance of still getting vaccinated if people have not yet done so.(Soucheray, 2/20)

While Americans have been transfixed by concerns about the potential spread of new coronavirus in the United States, a growing number of U.S. citizens have been dying as a result of the seasonal influenza epidemic. Public health officials announced Jan. 21 that the first confirmed case of COVID-19 arrived in the U.S. Since then, 14 other cases have been reported. During that same time period, more than 100 people have died of the flu in California. (Anderson, 2/20)

A wide share of Americans are at least moderately confident in U.S. health officials’ ability to handle emerging viruses, and more express concern about catching the flu than catching the new coronavirus, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The findings are encouraging to those banking on Americans' trust in the health officials who are ordering quarantines and travel restrictions to contain the virus first detected in China. (2/20)

Although Rachel Martin would never deny she had a drinking problem, she figured years would pass before it would take a toll on her health. After all, she had not yet hit 40 and she had managed to eke out two years of complete sobriety about a decade ago. Even when she was drinking, she would hit the bottle hard for three weeks but then go cold turkey for a week. So when Martin started feeling off about a year and a half ago, she tried to ignore the symptoms. (Rudavsky, 2/20)

One of the country's best-known tobacco researchers is under fire this week after one of his federally funded vaping studies was retracted and other academics are calling for federal review of some of his other influential anti-vaping research. The retracted study, by University of California, San Francisco medical school professor Stanton Glantz and published in Journal of the American Heart Association, said vaping doubled the risk of heart attacks. It was paid for primarily by the second of two $20 million grants awarded to Glantz and UCSF in 2018 from the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration to research tobacco and e-cigarettes. (O'Donnell, 2/20)

University researchers are sharing more than $200 million in grant money from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop small-scale sanitation systems. An estimated 4.2 billion people worldwide lack safe human waste disposal systems. (Barnes, 2/20)

Black LGBTQ youth are less likely to receive mental health care than the general LGBTQ youth population despite reporting similar rates of depression and suicidal thoughts, according to a recent study. The intersection of two identities -- LGBTQ and black -- makes these young people both more at risk of developing mental health problems and less likely to have access to adequate care, according to the study. (Knox, 2/20)

For the second year in a row the number of people who died in car crashes declined in 2019, according to the National Safety Council’s preliminary estimates released on Thursday. The data showed an estimated 38,800 people died in motor vehicles on the road last year -- a 2% decrease from 2018. (Schnell, 2/20)

Kaiser Health News: Stalked By The Fear That Dementia Is Stalking You

Do I know I’m at risk for developing dementia? You bet. My father died of Alzheimer’s disease at age 72; my sister was felled by frontotemporal dementia at 58. And that’s not all: Two maternal uncles had Alzheimer’s, and my maternal grandfather may have had vascular dementia. (In his generation, it was called senility.) So what happens when I misplace a pair of eyeglasses or can’t remember the name of a movie I saw a week ago? “Now comes my turn with dementia,” I think. Then I talk myself down from that emotional cliff. (Graham, 2/21)

A 34-year-old cancer survivor has become the first patient to give birth through a rare fertility treatment. It's giving hope to women with cancer who wish to have a baby.  (Oliver, 2/20)

Nearly 6 million children's water bottles from Contigo have been recalled over a spout that poses as a choking hazard, the company announced. It is the second time the product, Contigo Kids Cleanable Water Bottles, has been recalled in recent months. (Torres, 2/20)

Marijuana stores are slowly opening around Massachusetts, but industry analysts estimate that three-quarters of all cannabis sales still occur under the table.In that climate, police leaders say they are unsure of their role when it comes to unlicensed marijuana sellers. They are caught between licensed companies that are urging crackdowns on their non-tax-paying competitors selling cheaper cannabis, and communities calling for no more pot arrests, which have historically targeted people of color. (Martin, 2/20)

Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn says he opposes legalizing marijuana because he worries about “public health consequences,” such as potential harm to young people’s still-forming brains and ill effects on pregnant women and their fetuses. Two days after virtually all of his Democratic opponents agreed weed should be legal, Cornyn said Thursday that he opposes “normalizing a drug like marijuana” until many health concerns he has are put to rest. (Garrett, 2/20)

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday that he will embark on a cross-country tour of legal marijuana states as part of his effort to legalize the drug in New York. At a press event in New York City, Cuomo said he plans to visit Massachusetts, Illinois and either California or Colorado — three states that have "different versions" of legalized recreational marijuana programs. He said the goal is to find out what's worked for them, what hasn't, and what they've learned in the process. (Bump, 2/20)

Using medical marijuana in Missouri could get you fired if a new proposal becomes law. Legislation sponsored by Sen. David Sater, R-Cassville, would allow employers to test employees and prospective employees for medical marijuana, and give employers the discretion to act based on the test results. It would also allow employers to prohibit the use of medical marijuana at their businesses. (Stewart, 2/20)

Kentucky’s state House on Thursday passed a measure that would legalize medical marijuana in the state after several unsuccessful earlier attempts. The bill passed the chamber in a 65-30 vote, with all but two Democrats and a majority of Republican members present voting for it, the Courier-Journal reported. (Budryk, 2/20)

New federal regulations would make it harder for hemp growers to prove their plants are not marijuana, in what could be a major setback to a promising industry legalized just two years ago, farmers and state officials say. The U.S. Department of Agriculture in October unveiled stricter standards for hemp testing than many states had allowed under pilot programs that date to 2014. Now states are scrambling to adapt, and farmers are worrying they’ll face a higher risk of having to destroy crops that test “hot” as marijuana. (Quinton AND Simpson, 2/21)

The president of the University of Michigan apologized Thursday to "anyone who was harmed" by a school doctor who has been accused by several former students of molesting them during medical exams, including one man who said the university did not respond when he reported the abuse decades ago. One of those students, Gary Bailey, told The Associated Press that the late Dr. Robert E. Anderson dropped his pants and asked him to fondle his genitals in a medical exam during Bailey's senior year in 1968 or 1969. (2/20)

From 1968 until 2003, Dr. Robert E. Anderson was a team physician at the University of Michigan’s athletic department as well as the director of the university’s health service. Five of his former patients recently reported that he committed sexual misconduct from the 1970s until 2002, school officials said. (Belkin, 2/20)

Boston Children’s Hospital wasn’t medically negligent in its treatment of a Connecticut teen who spent nearly a year in state custody after doctors suspected her parents of medical child abuse, a jury in Boston concluded Thursday. The verdict in the medical malpractice lawsuit brought by the family of Justina Pelletier capped a high profile dispute that drew national media attention and sparked a broader debate over parental rights. (2/20)

After less than six hours of deliberation, a Suffolk County jury on Thursday found that Boston Children’s Hospital was not negligent in its treatment of Justina Pelletier, a Connecticut teenager whose plight sparked an emotional debate about parental rights in medical decisions. Pelletier spent nearly a year in the hospital’s child psychiatric ward in 2013 after doctors told state authorities they suspected her parents of medical child abuse. (Alanez, 2/20)

Fewer residents signed up for coverage through Access Health CT, the state’s health insurance exchange, during the enrollment period that ended in January than during previous year, officials said Thursday. The exchange reported 107,833 people had elected health plans for 2020. That’s a 3 percent drop from the 111,066 enrollees recorded last year. (Carlesso, 2/20)

After three siblings were diagnosed with measles at Children’s Hospital Colorado in December, public health officials began tracking down 258 other patients who visited the emergency department that day and were potentially exposed to the disease. ...It took most of a week, an estimated 3,600 hours of staff time and about $300,000. The coordinated effort to make sure no one else contracted measles was described to state lawmakers Wednesday during an into-the-night hearing on a bill aimed at improving Colorado’s lowest-in-the-nation immunization rates. (Brown, 2/20)

A bill filed in the Illinois state Senate last week aims to remove the option for parents to opt out of vaccinating their children on religious grounds. The legislation would also do away with most medical exemptions for vaccines required to attend schools in the state. (Garrand, 2/20)

The U.S.’s maternal mortality rate is among the highest of the developed world. Georgia has consistently ranked among the worst of U.S. states and more often than not – 60% of the time, according to one recent state estimate – those deaths were preventable. Most fatalities happen not during childbirth, but in the months following. Last month a bipartisan state House committee that studied the deepening crisis delivered 19 recommendations. Its top ask: for the state to extend Medicaid coverage for poor mothers to one year after childbirth, up from two months currently. (Hallerman, 2/21)

Hundreds of gun-restriction advocates visited the Missouri Statehouse on Tuesday to encourage lawmakers to pass stricter gun control measures. The specific legislation Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action want would prohibit anyone with a domestic offense conviction or an order of protection from purchasing a firearm. Colleen Coble, executive director of the Missouri Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, said that because legislators aren’t doing their jobs, Missouri ranks 13th in the nation for the highest number of women killed by men. (Driscoll, 2/18)

In an interview last fall, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, and his chief assistant defended their decision to strike a plea deal in 2016 that allowed a gynecologist accused of sexually abusing 19 patients to avoid going to prison. The chief assistant, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said the case against the doctor, Robert A. Hadden, was “not a slam-dunk.” Among other things, she said, some of the women were pregnant when they say the assaults occurred and so they could not see what was happening. (Ransom, 2/20)

Only a sliver of Charlotte’s housing stock is accessible to people with disabilities, with far fewer units than the number of households who need them, according to a new report. Just 5.5% of the Charlotte metro’s housing stock meets a federal accessibility standard for residents with mobility disabilities, according to real estate listing site Apartment List, which used Census data to compare supply and demand of accessible units. (Lindstrom, 2/21)

In Lincoln and Hazel LeFlore’s front yard, near the street, is what appears to be a fountain, poking out of the ground. It flows continuously, carving a trench that runs alongside their home and into the woods out back. Look closer, though, and take a breath — and it’s clear this is no fountain, but rather an open pipe that leads to a sewer. (Munz, 2/20)

Wisconsin lawmakers are on track to go another year without passing legislation aimed at preventing sexual assault victims from waiting years before evidence is tested. The inaction comes after such delays were at the center of a campaign against the former attorney general — a contest he ultimately lost — and as sexual assault victims and their advocates have lobbied for legislation to ensure evidence is properly analyzed. (Beck, 2/20)

In 2003, with the state’s health-care industry warning that doctors were fleeing in record numbers as a result of soaring malpractice insurance costs, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to make a highly controversial move. For the first time, patients would be allowed to sue for medical malpractice only in the county where the alleged injury happened. Previously, they could sue in any county where the provider operated, allowing them to choose the venue where a jury might be most sympathetic. Now, more than 15 years later, a new independent study casts doubt on the underlying reason for the change, concluding that the number of doctors practicing in Pennsylvania does not appear to be closely tied to the cost of malpractice insurance. (Keith, 2/20)

For more than two decades, David Ouellette did not disclose the sexual abuse he had suffered at the hands of his priest when he was just 15. He silently lived with the pain until 2002, the same year the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team reported on sexual assault crimes and cover-up by the Boston Archdiocese. (Dandrea, 2/20)

As Georgia leaders began setting budget priorities for the coming fiscal year, Voices for Georgia’s Children, a statewide, nonprofit child policy and advocacy organization, seized on the moment to bring awareness to what seems to me is a shameful blight on our children. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death behind unintentional injury for children ages 10-17 in Georgia, Sitkoff said. Not illness. Suicide. (Staples, 2/21)

Three years after new tobacco license regulations went into effect, the density of tobacco retailers in Philadelphia has been reduced by 20%, according to a new study by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. That amounts to 659 fewer licensed tobacco retailers in Philadelphia, a city that has had the highest density of tobacco sellers compared with other major U.S. cities, according to the study, published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health. (Giordano, 2/20)

Hearing loss has long been considered a normal, and thus acceptable, part of aging. It is common: Estimates suggest that it affects two out of three adults age 70 and older. It is also rarely treated. In the U.S., only about 14 percent of adults who have hearing loss wear hearing aids. An emerging body of research, however, suggests that diminished hearing may be a significant risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia — and that the association between hearing loss and cognitive decline potentially begins at very low levels of impairment. (Tingley, 2/20)

Joyce Daubert's baby weighed six pounds, one-and-three-quarter ounces — but weight was not what set Baby Boy Daubert apart. Nor was it the timing of his birth on July 26, 1973, almost two weeks past her due date. What shocked everyone in the delivery room at Palomar Memorial Hospital, in Escondido, California, were the newborn’s tiny limbs. Joyce, who was 26 at the time, first saw what looked like a vestigial big toe, and she remembered saying: “What’s wrong with his foot?” Her son appeared to have only two fingers on his right hand, and his right arm was rigid, angled up towards his face, almost, she thought, like a chicken wing. “I’m trying to figure out what’s happening and I’m just shocked,” she recalled. “And, you think, ‘Oh my God, what did I do wrong? Is he going to live?’” (Smith, 2/17)

Your mouth is currently teeming with giant viruses that, until very recently, no one knew existed. Unlike Ebola or the new coronavirus that’s currently making headlines, these particular viruses don’t cause disease in humans. They’re part of a group known as phages, which infect and kill bacteria. But while many phages are well studied, these newly discovered giants are largely mysterious. Why are they 10 times bigger than other phages? How do they reproduce? And what are they up to inside our bodies? “They’re in our saliva, and in our gut,” says Jill Banfield of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the team that discovered the new phages. “Who knows what they’re doing?” (Yong, 2/20)

The reason we find ourselves verging toward planetary extinction is fairly simple: for quite some time, it’s been profitable for humans to behave this way. For business and government, it’s always been easier to toggle between plunder and neglect than to mind long-term, civilizational time lines. The actual conspiracy is that we are made to feel as though humanity’s fate were purely a matter of personal choice—our desire to buy this, that, or nothing at all, our collective willingness to recycle or compost. This isn’t to say that we possess no power at all. But the scale of the problem is difficult to comprehend, and discussions leave many of us feeling overwhelmed and paralyzed, reduced to myopic debates about whether we are too scared or not scared enough. (Hsu, 2/21)

A mere 15 cases of the Wuhan coronavirus have been diagnosed in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and that number hasn’t budged in a week. But the true number of cases is unknown, because the U.S. is testing only those who recently arrived from China or have been in close contact with confirmed patients. Public-health authorities need to be prepared for a wider outbreak. The CDC says it will set up a pilot program in five states to screen some patients with unexplained lung infections. (Luciana Borio and Scott Gottlieb, 2/20)

In late January, the World Health Organization began offering to send an international team of experts to China to observe and help with the outbreak of a novel coronavirus. On Monday, that team of experts was finally allowed to start its investigations. The Chinese government, however, will not let them to visit epidemic-stricken Hubei province or the city of Wuhan, the likely source of the virus now called Covid-19 and the site of the largest quarantine in history. ...The WHO cannot organize a response to a global health emergency if the country at its center won’t cooperate. But recent history shows that too much political deference in a health emergency is a global risk in its own right. The WHO is uniquely positioned to demand more from China. It needs to do so now. (Adam Minter, 2/18)

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Earth, there have been more than 75,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 2,000 deaths. This leaves U.S. health experts hoping that the number of infections has been dramatically underreported. That is not a typo. If the current numbers are close to accurate, it indicates a coronavirus mortality rate upward of 2 percent. The mortality rate for the seasonal flu is generally 0.1 percent. The mortality rate for pandemic flu is 0.3 to 0.5 percent. The particularly deadly flu pandemic of 1918 — which took the lives of 50 million people around the world — had a mortality rate of about 2 percent. (Michael Gerson, 2/20)

First, there were no plans to quarantine people arriving from the center of the covid-19 outbreak; then the U.S. government imposed its first quarantine in more than 50 years. Passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship were ordered to stay on board for two weeks; then the government announced it would evacuate the Americans among them. The initial quarantine, which was due to end, was extended for two additional weeks. (Leana S. Wen, 2/20)

Professionals devoted to preventing global pandemics know best how to do their jobs — when they’re left to do their jobs. The danger comes when politicians and bureaucrats intervene with an eye toward easing human suffering or minimizing political fallout and wind up hastening the spread of the very viruses they’re fighting. One bad decision after another helped make the 2014 ebola scare far worse than it should have been. The new novel coronavirus pandemic is exposing an entirely new dimension in bad calls. (1/20)

As scientists race to thwart the novel coronavirus, little is being done to protect people from the significant vulnerabilities that arise from our policies, fractured health systems, and interlinked economies. The devastation of health systems and economies are two significant hazards of a burgeoning epidemic. Both forms of collateral damage are worsened by political maneuvering, mismanagement, lack of resources, lack of transparency, corruption, and purposeful disinformation campaigns. (Juliette Kayyem, Margaret Bourdeaux, Vanessa Kerry, and Annmarie Sasdi, 2/19)

“So, how much money do you guys make if I do that test you’re ordering for me?” This is a question I hear frequently from my patients, and it’s often followed by some variant of, “I thought hospitals were supposed to be nonprofit.” Patients are understandably confused. They see hospitals consolidating and creating vast medical empires with sophisticated marketing campaigns and sleek digs that resemble luxury hotels. And then there was the headline-grabbing nugget from a Health Affairs study that seven of the 10 most profitable hospitals in America are nonprofit hospitals. (Danielle Ofri, 2/20)

The Democratic primary debate on Wednesday night had an element of health care deja vu. For the ninth time, the candidates mostly rehashed the same talking points about the relative benefits of a public option and Medicare for All, as proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders. One of the few exchanges that stood out and might have an impact on Saturday’s caucuses in Nevada focused on the effect of various plans on unions. On Feb. 13, the state’s powerful Culinary Workers Union declined to endorse a candidate. The union has nevertheless been vocal in its opposition to Sanders’s proposal. Several candidates assailed Sanders on that issue at the debate, accusing him of threatening hard-won coverage. The Vermont senator and current front-runner responded by contending that he would never sign a bill that would cut into current benefits. (Max Nisen, 2/20)

Last month we learned that cancer death rates were down another 2 percent in 2018. And yet, in 2017, life expectancy of Americans fell by a month, while in 2018 it rose by about a month. This paradox conveys a critical lesson: Diseases like cancer account for less of the suffering and loss of life than we think. Societal failings account for more lost years than we care to consider. (Peter Back, 2/21)

Starting next week, green card applicants can be denied green cards partly on the basis that they are applying for green cards. Yes, you read that correctly. On Monday, the Trump administration begins enforcing a new rule supposedly designed to make sure any immigrants let in are self-sufficient and not a drain on government resources. That might sound reasonable enough. The rule is based on a series of flawed premises, though, and even more flawed processes. (Catherine Rampell, 2/20)

Just this month, Congress took [a] notable — and largely overlooked — bipartisan step forward on the issue that remains most important to voters: health care. A record-setting 403 lawmakers — 75 percent of Capitol Hill — sent companion letters from the Senate and House to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services expressing strong support for Medicare Advantage, the public-private partnership through which more than a third of Medicare beneficiaries receive coverage today. (Allyson Y. Schwartz, 2/21)

One of the proudest accomplishments of my profession, ophthalmology, is the reduction in blindness from glaucoma. Decades ago, it was common to hear “Uncle John went blind from glaucoma.” Now such tragedies are rare. But now the insurance companies are refusing to pay for the most effective glaucoma medicines while increasing the patients’ deductibles. The result will be that more patients go blind. (Joseph Bentivegna MD, 2/21)

Sometimes what doesn’t happen is as interesting as what does. Cloning human embryos has been possible for nearly seven years. Yet as far as I know, during that time no one has made a cloned baby or, apparently, has tried to make one. And what I find most surprising is that no one has announced they intend to make one. (Henry T. Greely, 2/21)

Prior authorization (PA) is a term most of us have heard before ―medical professionals and patients alike. We associate it with going to the pharmacy, finding that not only is our medication not ready for pick-up, it cannot be filled yet due to PA. PA generates feelings of confusion and anxiety, but it is also responsible for creating an enormous patient care burden. (Christine Alexandra Bottone, 2/20)

Trying to curb the number of suicides is not just a Department of Veterans Affairs problem. Many veterans do not receive VA medical care and are outside of the VA health care system. Suicide is a complex problem and must be approached from many directions. There is a wide range of strategies recommended by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center. (Wes Holden, 2/20)

I’m a doctor. I strive to fix things that are broken. Hearts, mostly. But my daughter Ruthie has forever changed my thinking about what needs to be fixed. (Ethan J. Weiss, 2/21)

The first investigation into the effectiveness of antibiotics for the treatment of Lyme disease was published by Steere in 1983. The study was conducted at a time when prevailing thought held that antibiotics would cure all infectious disease caused by bacteria. (Jennifer Shea, 2/20)

Last September, I believed my brain was on fire. Not in some metaphorical way. It was, as far as I was concerned, on fire. I am bipolar and I was hallucinating. My hallucinations can be sensory, like the brain burn, but many are auditory — I know hallucinations are coming when I hear birds speak. I can tell you what the birds say, but what matters is how intensely personal it is, being shouted at by a fierce small crowd: persist persist persist from one, six degrees yes yes yes from another. (Susanne Antonetta, 2/21)

The Oklahoma Senate approved a bill that expands the authority of nurse anesthetists. This issue has been stuck on high center for years as doctors’ groups objected to nurse anesthetists’ requests that they be allowed to administer anesthesia without physician supervision. The measure approved unanimously Monday, Senate Bill 801, would grant nurse anesthetists’ request — but it also allows patients who want one to request an on-site consultation with a doctor, osteopath or podiatrist. (2/21)