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This year's flu epidemic arrived early, spread widely, and brought extraordinary suffering expected to continue for months. The question is whether it will be enough to jolt the medical world and its funders from their complacency about influenza's persistent power. Much more investment is needed to get hospitals better prepared for future outbreaks, and to improve seasonal flu shots and treatments. Also lacking is a lasting, universal vaccine. (1/30)

"Fox & Friends" cohost Brian Kilmeade is no doctor – he doesn’t even play one on TV. That’s why it was nothing short of journalistic malpractice when he told his estimated 1.6 million viewers this week that they can “build up their immunity” by not getting a flu shot. His claim is politically driven and patently false. It’s also irresponsible. The H3N2 flu circulating this year is the most widespread outbreak since officials started keeping records 13 years ago. Nationwide, 37 children have died and nearly 12,000 have been hospitalized since the season started, Oct. 1, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (1/31)

Some conservatives are unhappy that Trump said that he had stripped out the core of Obamacare by ending the individual mandate. They think it amounts to surrendering the cause of repeal of the whole law. But here, too, we can’t take the speech as a guide. If Republican senators announced a breakthrough on health-policy talks, there’s no reason to think Trump would feel compelled to put the issue on the back burner because he did so when addressing Congress. (Ramesh Ponnuru, 1/31)

On January 12, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved a waiver allowing Kentucky to impose a work requirement on some nondisabled Medicaid beneficiaries. Similar waivers are sure to follow. Supporters see work requirements as a spur to force the idle poor to work; opponents see the requirements as a covert means of withholding medical care from vulnerable people. Setting the policy debate aside, however, are work requirements legal? The answer will hinge on whether a state’s waiver is a genuine “experimental, pilot, or demonstration project” that is “likely to assist in promoting the objectives” of the Medicaid program. (Nicholas Bagley, 1/30)

Together, we are introducing HB1383 and SB1872 creating the “Healthy Florida Program.” This program will place Florida at the forefront in terms of health care policy and will require the state to adopt a Medicare-for-All healthcare system. (David Richardson, 1/30)

Subjecting doctors and hospitals to carrots and sticks hasn’t worked for several reasons. The most fundamental one: Clinician skill is not the only factor that determines the quality of care. Consider one widely used performance measure: the percent of patients diagnosed with high blood pressure whose blood pressure is brought under control. Doctors who treat older, sicker, and poorer patients with high blood pressure will inevitably score worse on this so-called quality measure than doctors who treat healthier and higher-income patients. (Kip Sullivan and Stephen Soumerai, 1/30)

Everyone wants the best physician. Patients want their physician to know medical information by heart, to possess diagnostic acumen, and to be well-versed in the latest tests and treatments. Finding the best physicians often involves looking for resumes with stellar attributes, such as having graduated at the top of a collegiate class, attended the best medical schools, completed internships and residency training at the nation’s most prestigious hospitals, and been awarded the most competitive fellowships. Many medical schools, likewise, want only the smartest students, as assessed by the highest grade point averages and MCAT scores. This selection process has persisted for decades. But is it misguided? Do the smartest students, as measured by science grades and standardized test results, truly make the best physicians? (Ezekiel J. Emanuel and Emily Gudbranson, 1/29)

Accusations of “fake news” are all the rage now, with people often throwing around the term when they read an article that tells them something they don’t want to hear. But an entire industry called “product defense,” created years ago by the tobacco industry, uses falsehoods and misdirection to protect companies from bad media and regulatory scrutiny. The pharmaceutical industry is no stranger to these tactics. Document archives have revealed how tobacco companies helped create and hone product defense strategies. In my years as a reporter and during a stint as an investigator for the U.S. Senate, I’ve seen them deployed by a range of industries. (Paul D. Thacker, 1/30)