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The Chinese authorities resorted to increasingly extreme measures in Wuhan on Thursday to try to halt the spread of the deadly coronavirus, ordering house-to-house searches, rounding up the sick and warehousing them in enormous quarantine centers. The urgent, seemingly improvised steps come amid a worsening humanitarian crisis in Wuhan, one exacerbated by tactics that have left this city of 11 million with a death rate from the coronavirus of 4.1 percent as of Thursday — staggeringly higher than the rest of the country’s rate of 0.17 percent. (Qin, Myers and Yu, 2/6)

A viral outbreak that began in China has infected more than 31,400 people globally. The latest figures reported by health authorities as of Friday in Beijing:— China: 636 deaths and 31,161 confirmed cases on the mainland. In addition, Hong Kong has had 22 cases, including one death. Macao has had 10 cases. Most of the deaths have been in central Hubei province, where illnesses from the new type of coronavirus were first detected in December. (2/7)

Beijing has publicly criticized the U.S. for days over its response to the dangerous coronavirus, despite working in the background with American authorities and accepting U.S. aid to contain its spread in China. In an indication the tension and rhetoric aren’t derailing relations, China took a step Thursday toward implementing a trade deal the two counties signed last month, saying it would cut tariffs on some U.S. goods. (Areddy, 2/6)

President Trump on Thursday spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the coronavirus after officials said more than 600 people had died from the disease in China."President Trump expressed confidence in China’s strength and resilience in confronting the challenge of the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak," a White House spokesman said in a statement. "The two leaders agreed to continue extensive communication and cooperation between both sides." (Samuels, 2/6)

The relentless whir of machines echoing across a cavernous French factory floor this week is an unexpected result of the deadly virus that has nearly paralyzed cities in China and other parts of Asia. The company, Kolmi Hopen, happens to make an item that is suddenly one of the world’s hottest commodities: the medical face mask. The factory, in Angers, typically makes around 170 million masks a year, but in the last week orders arrived for a staggering half a billion, flooding the sales department’s inboxes at the rate of one every two minutes. (Alderman, 2/6)

China on Thursday completed the second of two new hospitals in Wuhan, the city at the heart of the coronavirus outbreak, in a matter of days to help combat the fast-spreading virus. The outbreak is straining the resources of Wuhan’s front-line hospital staff, who have been forced to turn patients away because of a lack of beds and basic supplies. (Wang, Shu and Umlauf, 2/6)

In a nation unaccustomed to widespread working from home, China's coronavirus epidemic is forcing millions of white-collar workers to get used to business outside the office. With millions of companies keeping staff away to curb contagion, demand is surging for chat apps that employees are adjusting to use from living rooms, kitchens and home offices. (Horwitz, Yang and Tham, 2/7)

Things were looking up on Thursday for the more than 2,000 passengers quarantined on a cruise ship in Yokohama, Japan: Meals were coming on a more regular schedule. The internet was upgraded to a wider bandwidth. And there was even official approval to breathe some fresh air. Still, on the second day of a planned two-week quarantine, there was persistent concern about the spreading coronavirus and dread about long days ahead stuck inside the cabins. (Kwai, 2/6)

The Diamond Princess is docked in the port of Yokohama and passengers have been told to remain in their cabins for a two-week quarantine period. Between passengers and crew, there are about 3,700 people aboard. (Gale and Bhattacharya, 2/7)

Panicky Hong Kong residents scooped loads of tissues and noodles into supermarket trolleys on Friday despite government assurances that supplies would be maintained during an outbreak of a new coronavirus that emerged in mainland China last month. Hong Kong has had 24 cases of the virus, and one of only two deaths outside mainland China where almost 640 people have died in the outbreak. (2/7)

The rapidly spreading coronavirus has wreaked havoc across much of the developed world, yet not a single case has been confirmed so far in Africa -- the continent that’s least equipped to deal with the epidemic. Health officials are still bracing themselves for the worst. (Kew, Herbling, and Gebre, 2/7)

He was the doctor who tried to sound a warning that a troubling cluster of viral infections in a Chinese province could grow out of control — and was then summoned for a middle-of-the-night reprimand over his candor. On Friday, the doctor, Li Wenliang, died after contracting the very illness he had told medical school classmates about in an online chat room, the coronavirus. He joined the more than 600 other Chinese who have died in an outbreak that has now spread across the globe. Dr. Li “had the misfortune to be infected during the fight against the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, and all-out efforts to save him failed,” the Wuhan City Central Hospital said on Weibo, the Chinese social media service. “We express our deep regret and condolences.” (Buckley, 2/6)

They posted videos of the Les Misérables song, “Do You Hear the People Sing.” They invoked article No. 35 of China’s Constitution, which stipulates freedom of speech. They tweeted lines from a poem, “For whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.” The Chinese public have staged what amounts to an online revolt after the death of a doctor, Li Wenliang, who tried to warn of a mysterious virus that has since killed hundreds of people in China, infected tens of thousands and forced the government to corral many of the country’s 1.4 billion people. (Yuan, 2/7)

News of Li's death became the top top-read topic on China's microblogging site Weibo overnight on Friday, with over 1.5 billion views, and was also heavily discussed in private WeChat messaging groups, where people expressed outrage and sadness. Some Chinese media outlets described him as a "hero who was willing to speak the truth" while other commentators posted poems, photos and drawings saluting him. The World Health Organization said on Twitter that it was "deeply saddened" by news of his death. (2/7)

China’s National Supervisory Commission, the country’s top anticorruption body, said Friday that it would send a special team to Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, to investigate the circumstances around Dr. Li’s death. The Wuhan municipal government, meanwhile, published a notice on its website Friday to pay tribute to Dr. Li, expressing profound sorrow and conveying condolences to his family. The National Health Commission and the health commissions of Wuhan and Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, issued similar statements. (Cheng, 2/7)

“It’s not so important to me if I’m vindicated or not,” Li, 34, said in an interview from a quarantine room with Chinese publication Caixin. “What’s more important is that everyone knows the truth.” (Su, 2/6)

The World Health Organization also tweeted Thursday that it was "deeply saddened" by Li's death. In response to a question during a WHO news conference Thursday, Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the agency's Health Emergencies Program, said: “We should celebrate his life and mourn his death with his colleagues." (Austin, 2/7)

Shortly after touching down in San Diego, four of 167 passengers on a quarantine flight that landed Wednesday morning at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar were transported to local hospitals after showing symptoms of coronavirus infection, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement Wednesday night. By Thursday evening, a fifth person had been hospitalized. (Sisson, 2/6)

The number of cases in the U.S. rose to 12 on Wednesday, with officials in Wisconsin confirming the state's first case. There are also cases in California, Arizona, Massachusetts, Washington and Illinois. (2/7)

Hundreds of Americans being evacuated from China over a viral outbreak will be quarantined in Texas and Nebraska, officials said Thursday, stressing that it was unlikely that anyone will arrive there with signs of illness. Officials said about 70 Americans will be flown into Omaha and quarantined at a nearby Nebraska National Guard training base. In Texas, Lackland Air For Base in San Antonio was preparing to quarantine as many as 250 people who could arrive as soon as Friday, said Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control's division of high consequence pathogens and pathology. (Funk, 2/6)

Coronavirus tests developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shipped Wednesday to U.S. and international laboratories, including those at state and local public health departments. Health providers and health departments previously sent samples for testing to the CDC in Atlanta, Ga. (Hellmann, 2/6)

Jarred Evans has explored every inch of the Air Force barracks where he has lived under federal quarantine for the past eight days. He has measured out its exact length: 0.45 miles. He has run through every stairwell, hallway and parking lot row hundreds of times, trying to keep in shape and stay sane. “It’s all in the mind. You have to stay mentally strong,” said Evans, 27, who was playing American football professionally in Wuhan, China, before he became one of 195 evacuees now living at the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, Calif. (Wan, Sun and Satija, 2/6)

Under this 14-day quarantine, the passengers don't have to wear masks, although they can if they choose, according to Chris Braden, deputy director for the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They are asked to keep a distance from other people — about six feet, he adds.Now that they're in their quarters, there are getting symptom and temperature checks twice each day, Braden says. (Stein and Renken, 2/6)

At Tufts Medical Center in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood, a dozen staffers are getting a brief lesson on PPE — that's personal protective equipment — against the new coronavirus. Trainer Janice McLaughlin has her students get gowned up first, cautioning them to make sure the gowns are on properly. (Goldberg, 2/7)

As the world grapples to contain a troubling new strain of the coronavirus, an early criticism of the U.S. response has come from an influential critic: Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration.Gottlieb is alarmed that this country’s capacity to test for the pathogen is lagging as the outbreak spreads from China to 27 other countries. It is imperative that Congress and the Trump administration act on his concerns to ensure the nation has the readiness and resources to contain this new public health threat.In a long Twitter thread posted Sunday, Gottlieb said swifter, broader screening is needed nationally to detect coronavirus, which has sickened more than 28,000 people in China. (2/6)

Public health officials say people in the Bay Area run a low risk of falling ill from the novel coronavirus. Fewer than five people in the nine-county region are being treated for the flu-like disease. The San Francisco Department of Public Health is working to spread that message to Cantonese and Mandarin speakers. (Arcuni, 2/6)

Some U.S. cities have canceled their Chinese New Year celebrations this year, owing to safety concerns with the spread of the new coronavirus beyond China. But in San Francisco, host to one of the oldest and largest Lunar New Year festivals and parades in the country, things are going ahead as planned. (Veltman, 2/6)

China is forging ahead in the search for treatments for people sickened by the new coronavirus that has infected more than 28,000 people in a countrywide epidemic, killed more than 500 and seeded smaller outbreaks in 24 other nations. The need is urgent: There are no approved treatments for illnesses caused by coronaviruses. On Thursday, China began enrolling patients in a clinical trial of remdesivir, an antiviral medicine made by Gilead, the American pharmaceutical giant. (Grady, 2/6)

The flu-like virus that exploded from China has researchers worldwide once again scrambling to find a vaccine against a surprise health threat, with no guarantee one will arrive in time. Just days after Chinese scientists shared the genetic map of the culprit coronavirus, researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health had engineered a possible key ingredient for a vaccine they hope to begin testing by April. (Neergaard, 2/6)

As China struggles to contain an epidemic caused by a new coronavirus, science is racing to develop vaccines to blunt the outbreak’s impact. Central to the effort is CEPI — the Oslo, Norway-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations — a global partnership created to spearhead development of vaccines in just this type of emergency. Two weeks after China announced on Jan. 7 that a new coronavirus had ignited a fast-growing outbreak of pneumonia cases in the city of Wuhan, CEPI announced funding for three efforts to develop a vaccine to protect against the virus, currently known as 2019-nCoV. A week later, it added a fourth. (Branswell, 2/6)

Separately, Singapore—home to the second-largest number of cases outside mainland China—reported two new infections, including one with no apparent link to China. The city-state warned the public to be “prepared for the possibility of new infection clusters involving locals within the community,” and that future cases might not arise from recent travel to China or contact with travelers from that country. (Lin and Woo, 2/6)

With the threat of the coronavirus growing, Aleksandra Kuzmanovic sat at her computer in Geneva on Monday and sent out an important public health email. She works for the World Health Organization and her aim was to assess and stop a global spread — not of the dangerous virus but of hazardous false information. She wanted to halt what her colleagues at the health agency are calling an “infodemic.” (Richtel, 2/6)

Disinformation about the coronavirus is spreading online just as quickly as it is spreading in real life.Take a video posted to social media app TikTok showing a man claiming to have the blood of “patient zero.” According to The Associated Press, the video was satire but nevertheless circulated widely, contributing to rumors, confusion and fear around the virus, also known as nCoV-2019. The virus has killed more than 500 people in China. (Richert, 2/6)

Reddit is encouraging its users to combat misinformation about the coronavirus on its platform, prompting medical experts to take matters into their own hands. The unpaid curators of the popular website’s largest coronavirus-related discussion groups, the r/coronavirus and r/china_flu “subreddits,” are working overtime to ensure verified information rises to the top of the platform. Reddit’s leadership is encouraging those users to take the lead. (Birnbaum and Mills Rodrigo, 2/7)

Chinese researchers said they had found evidence linking the spread of coronavirus to the pangolin, a mammal illegally trafficked in huge numbers for the supposedly healing qualities of its scales and meat. (Denyer and Crawshaw, 2/7)

Scientists tracking how the deadly new coronavirus leapt from animals to humans said the likely source of the infection is bats, underscoring the health risks associated with humans’ increasing push into the habitats of wild animals. The 2019 novel coronavirus marks the third leap of its kind in 20 years following the SARS virus, which moved from bats to a mammal called a civet and then to humans beginning in 2002, and the Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, which was transmitted from camels in 2012. (Camero, 2/6)

Earlier this week, the still-rising death toll in mainland China from the coronavirus surpassed the 349 fatalities recorded during the 2003 SARS epidemic. Although both viruses are believed to have originated in bats, they don’t behave in the same way. SARS spread slowly, but its mortality rate was 9.6%, compared with about 2% for the swift-moving coronavirus. Statistics tell only one part of the story, however. Advances in the genetic sequencing of diseases have revealed that a vast hinterland of growth and adaptation precedes the appearance of a new disease. Cancer, for example, predates human beings themselves: Last year scientists announced that they had discovered traces of bone cancer in the fossil of a 240-million-year-old shell-less turtle from the Triassic period. (Foreman, 2/6)

More than 200 medical professionals in the South have signed an open letter opposing a bevy of state bills targeting health care treatment for transgender minors. In at least eight states, Republican lawmakers have introduced proposals that would punish — and in some cases jail — doctors and other medical professionals who provide puberty-suppressing drugs, cross-sex hormones and transition-related surgery to adolescents. Bills being debated in Missouri and New Hampshire would classify this gender-affirming care as “child abuse.” (Lang, 2/6)

A pair of Tennessee state Republicans has filed legislation to ban sex change therapy for children, to require three doctors' approval for teens to receive any such treatment and to put criminal penalties in place. The bill, filed by state Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, and state Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, would charge parents and medical providers with child abuse for taking part in the treatment process. (Allison, 2/6)

Virginia lawmakers passed comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation Thursday that advocates said makes the state the first in the South to enact such protections for LGBTQ people. The measures advanced on bipartisan votes, 59-35 in the House and 30-9 in the Senate as newly empowered Democrats continued to advance bills that Republicans blocked for years. Each chamber still must take up the other’s measure in procedural votes before the legislation can be sent to the governor, who supports it, for final approval. (2/6)

“Its sends a message that the commonwealth is a safe and welcoming place for all people,” said Sen. Adam P. Ebbin (D-Alexandria), who was Virginia’s first openly gay legislator when he joined the House of Delegates in 2004. Today, the General Assembly has a five-member LGBT Caucus, including Del. Danica A. Roem (D-Prince William), the first openly transgender state lawmaker elected in the country. (Vozzella, 2/6)

The U.S. government on Thursday began enforcing restrictions on flavored electronic cigarettes aimed at curbing underage vaping. But some teenagers may be one step ahead of the rules. Parents, researchers and students warn that some young people have already moved on to a newer kind of vape that isn't covered by the flavor ban. (Perrone, 2/6)

Juul Labs Inc. has raised more than $700 million in convertible debt to fund its operations, according to people familiar with the matter, as the e-cigarette maker confronts increasing financial and regulatory pressures. The fundraising round comes after several investors have slashed their valuation of the San Francisco company. Altria Group Inc. last week took a second big charge on its investment and now holds it at a price that values Juul at $12 billion, down from $38 billion in late 2018. (Maloney, 2/6)

Federal officials are asking Georgia for more information on the state’s request for a waiver to make changes to the health insurance exchange. In a letter dated Thursday to Gov. Brian Kemp, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) indicates that the “reinsurance’’ part of that waiver proposal is proceeding smoothly. (Miller, 2/6)

Kaiser Health News: Feds Slow Down But Don’t Stop Georgia’s Contentious Effort To Ditch ACA Marketplace

“CMS is committed to working with states to provide the flexibility they need to increase choices for their citizens, promote market stability, and more affordable coverage,” a spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, who declined to be identified, wrote in an email to KHN. “We are pleased to see states like Georgia take the lead in health care reform by creating innovative state based solutions.” Federal officials in recent weeks had requested additional information from Georgia, and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday asked for a delay in the evaluation of a large portion of the proposal. (Findlay, 2/7)

The federal government reports that more than 27 million Americans were unable to obtain health insurance in 2018. One reason is state restrictions on Medicaid. That has some people crossing state lines to get the care they need. (Martínez Valdivia, 2/6)

The House on Tuesday passed a resolution officially condemning the Trump administration’s new Medicaid block grant plan. The non-binding resolution won’t have much practical effect. It passed on a mostly party line vote of 224-189 and will almost certainly see no time in the GOP-controlled Senate. (Weixel, 2/6)

A Republican lawmaker on Thursday expressed his disgust with a Democratic resolution by ripping it in half on the House floor. As the House was debating a resolution expressing disapproval with a new Trump administration Medicaid guidance, Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.) indicated he was fed up with non-binding resolutions. (Weixel, 2/6)

Citing “untenable” price increases, state officials are scrapping a program that was intended to save the state’s Medicaid program tens of millions of dollars and offer better health care options to thousands of poor college students. The Baker administration’s decision to eliminate its so-called premium assistance program for student health insurance plans means 21,000 students will shift off Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts plans offered through their schools, with MassHealth, the state’s taxpayer-funded Medicaid provider, becoming their primary insurer. (Stout, 2/6)

The Republican-controlled House and Senate are split about whether to permanently eliminate Medicaid retroactive eligibility for seniors and people with disabilities. The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved a bill (HB 5201) that would make the change permanent. But the Senate wants to extend the change for one year, including it in a budget “implementing” bill (SPB 2502) for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. (Sexton, 2/6)

If it works, we pay. If not, we get most — if not all — of our money back. That’s the gist of a deal the Massachusetts Medicaid program, MassHealth, has reached for one of the most expensive drugs on the market. (Bebinger, 2/7)

The French drug giant Sanofi on Thursday reported positive results in a study of its new pill to treat multiple sclerosis. The drug, which Sanofi licensed from South San Francisco-based Principia Biopharma in 2017, “significantly reduced disease activity associated with multiple sclerosis as measured by magnetic resonance imaging,” the company said in a statement. Full data on the drug, called SAR442168, are not being made available yet, but will be presented at a later medical meeting. (Herper, 2/6)

In an unusual move, the U.S. Embassy in the Netherlands is taking the Dutch government to task for policies that would purportedly undermine patent rights held by drug makers, drawing criticism from consumer advocates who argue such declarations place pharmaceutical industry profits over patients. Late last month, the embassy issued a missive criticizing Dutch officials for plans to expand compulsory licensing and pharmaceutical compounding, which would “send a clear message” to companies that patents in the Netherlands “can be undermined or circumvented for short-term financial benefits.” (Silverman, 2/6)

New surprise billing legislation from the House Ways & Means Committee is expected to leave out a benchmark payment mechanism that has proved a nonstarter for hospitals and specialty physician groups, according to sources familiar with the draft legislation. Ways & Means Chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said Wednesday that he expects his committee's bill to be released by Friday, ahead of a Feb. 12 target markup date. (Cohrs, 2/6)

The House Education and Labor Committee is joining the legislative fray over "surprise" medical bills with a new plan that's due to be marked up Feb. 11, Chairman Bobby Scott (D-Va.) told POLITICO. The panel, which has jurisdiction over employer-based insurance, is the fourth congressional committee to weigh how to hold patients harmless from sometimes staggering unexpected bills for out-of-network care. House Ways and Means is expected to unveil legislation this week, to be marked up on Feb. 12. (Luthi, 2/6)

Claims in a 2019 lawsuit that HCA Florida hospitals were billing patients surprise facility fees for emergency room visits were overblown and inaccurate, according to a South Florida federal judge. The hospitals did in fact charge facility fees, U.S. Judge Roy K. Altman said in an order dismissing the lawsuit on Monday, but they were disclosed on the internet on lists known as chargemasters, which list the costs of various goods and services. (Conarck, 2/6)

Move aside, Big Tech. If 2017 was the year technology giants like Apple set their sights on the $3.5 trillion U.S. health care market, 2020 is shaping up to be the year in which a new set of entrants join the race. Retail and telecom giants including AT&T, Best Buy, and Walmart are turning key assets like wireless networks, mobile workers, and foot traffic into health care tools. (Brodwin, 2/6)

A New Jersey state jury on Thursday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $750 million in punitive damages to four people who said their use of the company’s talcum powders caused a rare cancer, the latest legal loss for the health-care giant. The judge presiding over the trial, Ana C. Viscomi of New Jersey Superior Court, citing state law, said she planned to reduce the punitive award to $186.5 million, or about five times the $37.3 million in compensatory damages awarded by a separate jury in the first phase of the case last year. (Loftus, 2/6)

The number of workers with intellectual and developmental disabilities integrated into the workforce has largely plateaued in the past year, and the national turnover rate for those providing direct support for such people is nearing 45 percent, according to a Thursday report from the ANCOR Foundation and United Cerebral Palsy (UCP). (Budryk, 2/6)

As state lawmakers consider giving advanced practice practitioners more autonomy, some physicians are digging in to defend their turf. Legislatures in Ohio, Kansas and other states are reviewing bills that would remove the requirement that doctors must sign off on prescriptions before advanced practice registered nurses prescribe them to patients. The American Medical Association has continued to oppose expanding APPs' scope of practice, claiming that APPs cannot match physicians' education, training and expertise. (Kacik, 2/6)

Cook County Health, which also includes John H. Stroger Hospital’s much smaller sister hospital, Provident, spent $377 million in uncompensated charitable care in 2019. It’s projecting that number will rise to $409 million this year. That can’t continue, Cook County Health’s interim CEO Debra Carey said in an interview in her office on a dreary, drizzly morning last month. “There will be a limit when we won’t be able to provide the same levels of care with the dollars we bring in,” she said. “We’ve pretty much already reached that limit.” (Ollove, 2/7)

Kaiser Health News: Patients Stuck With Bills After Insurers Don’t Pay As Promised

The more than $34,000 in medical bills that contributed to Darla and Andy Markley’s bankruptcy and loss of their home in Beloit, Wisconsin, grew out of what felt like a broken promise. Darla Markley, 53, said her insurer had sent her a letter preapproving her to have a battery of tests at the Mayo Clinic in neighboring Minnesota after she came down with transverse myelitis, a rare, paralyzing illness that had kept her hospitalized for over a month. (Weber, 2/7)

Kaiser Health News: Women Shouldn’t Get A Bill For An IUD … But Sometimes They Do

After a few months on daily contraceptive pills, Erica M. wanted something more reliable. She wanted an intrauterine device, a form of long-acting reversible contraception that doctors call one of the most effective forms of birth control. (Erica’s last name has been withheld due to privacy concerns.) It shouldn’t have been a problem. Erica, 23 at the time, had insurance through work. Under the Affordable Care Act, most health plans must cover all methods of birth control without any cost sharing. In fact, the birth control pills she was using were fully covered — she paid nothing out-of-pocket. (Luthra, 2/7)

Kansas legislators considering a proposed amendment to the state constitution on abortion are raising the spectre of women being forced back into going to unsafe and unclean “back alley” clinics if their measure does not pass. But in a twist away from what’s typical in such debates, anti-abortion lawmakers were making the argument Thursday as the House gave first-round approval to the proposed amendment. The measure would overturn a Kansas Supreme Court decision last year declaring access to abortion a “fundamental right” under the state’s Bill of Rights. (Hanna, 2/6)

Republican lawmakers in Florida moved closer to enacting legislation to require parental consent before a minor can get an abortion, clearing a key hurdle Thursday in the state Legislature. After a civil but passionate hourlong debate, the Senate voted 23-17 along party lines to endorse the measure, which now awaits action in the state House. Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has said he supports the effort in the GOP-led Legislature. (Caina Calvan, 2/6)

A local police department in Louisiana is warning people about a potentially lethal drug combination called "gray death" — a substance so powerful, they warn you shouldn't even touch it. St. Mary Parish Sheriff's Office in Louisiana is alerting the public about the drug in wake of recent arrests. David Spencer, a spokesperson for the St. Mary's Parish Sheriff's Office, told CBS affiliate KLFY-TV that "gray death" is a heroin that has been cut with fentanyl — a synthetic opioid that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency says is 80 to 100 times stronger than heroin. (Brito, 2/6)

A center for people experiencing methamphetamine-induced psychosis will open in San Francisco to help them get sober in a safe place, the latest effort to address the city's rising drug overdoses and rampant street drug use. The center, believed to be the first in the U.S. specifically for people who are high on methamphetamine, will open late this spring on a city-owned parking lot in the Tenderloin neighborhood, where streets are littered with syringes and addicts congregate, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday. (2/6)

A dentist from Florissant was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to 18 months in prison for illegally prescribing drugs to a former patient and employee with whom he was having an affair. Dr. Bradley A. Seyer’s girlfriend died of a fentanyl overdose in Des Peres in July 2018. Some of the drugs Seyer prescribed were in her system when she died, but he did not prescribe the fentanyl, according to his plea agreement. (Patrick, 2/5)

Five cases of measles were confirmed in Los Angeles County on Wednesday, with the local Department of Public Health warning that the local outbreak included four residents and an “unimmunized, international visitor.” The department listed 33 public places where that confirmed case was known to have been between Jan. 26 and Sunday. (Budryk, 2/6)

Ryan’s is one of three Texas prison deaths in as many years that have resulted in criminal charges being pursued against correctional officers involved in forceful encounters. In September, a former guard was tried in the 2017 slamming death of a prisoner. And prosecution is moving forward against another officer involved in the October fatal beating of an inmate. The cases are a rarity in the Texas prison system — an official labeled the three criminal investigations into the officers an “anomaly” — but the homicides coincide with a troubling trend. Over the last decade, while the Texas prison population has decreased by thousands, the number of times officers have used force against inmates has jumped. (McCullough, 2/7)

Florida prisons are badly underfunded. Prisoners tell me short-staffing corrections positions allows well-organized gangs a freer hand while some prison officials turn a blind eye. Drugs flow into prison and are distributed by inmates who seem to move freely. Last I checked, there was no mandatory discipline for officers who let inmates in and out of unauthorized housing areas. (Cook, 2/6)

The VA says the overhaul has gotten off to a good start, authorizing more than 1.5 million visits to outside providers between June and December. The program also allows veterans to visit private walk-in clinics without pre-approval, with 209 of the participating clinics in Georgia alone treating 2,477 veterans during that period. But in Georgia, at least, there are also warning signs that things have gotten worse, not better. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution review of wait times at metro Atlanta VA health care facilities showed they grew at many locations since the program began, with waits as long as 63 days. (Quinn, 2/7)

Does it make sense for San Francisco to open a homeless shelter in every part of the city that doesn’t have one? That’s the question under discussion at City Hall, where the Board of Supervisors is considering a proposal by Supervisor Matt Haney to spread homeless shelters beyond the neighborhoods where they’re now concentrated. (Thadani, 2/6)

Georgia would need at least four new juvenile detention centers if the state raises the age at which teens are charged with crimes as an adult from 17 to 18, state officials said. Georgia is one of three states in the nation that charge 17-year-olds who commit crimes as adults. There were about 6,600 17-year-olds arrested in 2018 — the bulk of them in the Atlanta area — according to state data. (Prabhu, 2/6)

Connecticut health officials are reminding people to get vaccinated against the flu and take precautions after a child died of the disease recently in Connecticut. The child, a New Haven County resident between the ages of 1 and 5, was one of nine fatalities reported last week. Connecticut has logged 32 deaths since October – the start of flu season; only one child has died. More than 1,350 people have been hospitalized. (Carlesso, 2/6)

If proposed budget cuts go into effect, Georgians who call the state’s poison control center after snakebites, poison scares and other emergencies may have to wait longer to get their call answered, the center’s medical director testified Thursday. Dr. Robert Geller, who oversees the center, was among several health advocates who don’t want their budgets reduced and have given legislators a blunt picture of the possible impact of cuts proposed by the governor’s office. (Hart, 2/6)

Making a deeply personal case for improving access to mental health care, Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka and state Sen. Julian Cyr helped roll out a significant reform bill Thursday that seeks to improve access to care by identifying gaps in the system, enforcing equity laws and clearly requiring insurance coverage for many emergency services. The bill, which will be debated in the Senate next week, would give the state notable new powers to enforce existing state and federal laws that require equitable access to physical and mental health care, but have fallen short. (Murphy, 2/6)

Mississippi's state auditor said Thursday that investigators believe at least $4 million in federal welfare money was stolen by the former head of the state welfare agency and others in the nation's poorest state. At least $48,000 of that paid for a luxury drug rehabilitation program for a former pro wrestler, according to indictments issued Wednesday, which also alleged a politically connected nonprofit administrator and her son took more than $4 million __ including more than $2 million invested in two Florida medical companies. (2/6)

The first ordained Presbyterian minister of gun violence prevention is headed to St. Louis to teach elected officials and parishioners about ending gun violence. Washington University and Webster Groves Presbyterian Church will host a weekend-long event that will include a lecture, sermon and workshop with the Rev. Deanna Hollas. Hollas was ordained a minister of gun violence prevention through the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship last year. (Lewis-Thompson, 2/7)

Father Bill's — and its sister facility in Brockton, MainSpring House — are what's known as low-threshold shelters. They take pretty much anyone, including people who are intoxicated and those with criminal records. They don't perform criminal background or sex offender registry checks. Many shelters in Massachusetts have stricter rules. According to information provided by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, 21 of the 39 emergency adult homeless shelters funded by the state require sobriety. (Joliocoeur, 2/7)

Northwestern Memorial Hospital is seeking approval from the state for a $77.6 million expansion on its Streeterville campus. The 894-bed hospital is looking to add 49 new beds and construct a three-story building that would connect its Feinberg and Galter pavilions, according to an application filed with the Illinois Health Facilities & Services Review Board, which oversees healthcare projects in the state. (Goldberg, 2/6)

The young father was arrested after his 6-week-old son was found lifeless in his crib in the Bronx one morning last week. Investigators had found undated video on a baby monitor of him pressing down on a pillow over the tiny boy’s head and charged him with murder. But it was not the first time the authorities had heard about the father, Teshawn Watkins. (Southall, 2/7)

Safety violations and patient overcrowding have long plagued a California psychiatric hospital that served as an inspiration for Portland’s Unity Center for Behavioral Health, suggesting that some of the trouble local hospital leaders continue to face should have been foreseeable. In 2014, Oregon hospital officials began eagerly promoting the California endeavor, dubbed the “Alameda Model,” as a humane, compassionate alternative that could be adopted in Portland to better treat mentally ill people. (Harbarger and Schmidt, 2/6)

Two documents from the past month reflect the state of racial disparities in access to health care in North Carolina. A new report from the Commonwealth Fund, a health care policy nonprofit, showed that racial disparities in access to health care across the country have shrunk since the Affordable Care Act was implemented in 2014. But that reduction in disparities is unevenly distributed. (Duong, 2/7)

Howard University Hospital has signed an agreement with Adventist HealthCare to manage the hospital’s operation as an initial step toward a possible acquisition and replacement of the troubled medical center, officials announced Thursday. Wayne A.I. Frederick, Howard University Hospital’s president, said that he wanted to reassure the community that the new arrangement will strengthen the teaching hospital’s historical mission of training African American physicians and preparing undergraduates for medical school while providing care for some of the city’s poorest residents. (Kunkle and Douglas-Gabriel, 2/6)

One of the most traumatic days of Susan McFrederick’s life was watching her son, Witt, get wheeled away for surgery to fix a ruptured intestine hours after he was born in 2011. But after the operation at Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio, McFrederick, a mother of six, and her husband, Rodd McFrederick, burst into tears for a different reason: Across the incision on their newborn son’s belly was a sweet winter scene, hand-drawn on his bandages. (Free, 2/5)

The New Hampshire Senate has again passed a bill that would let qualified patients grow their own medical cannabis. The bill allows patients or designated caregivers to raise up to three mature marijuana plants at a time. Tom Sherman, a Democrat from Rye, says approved patients can struggle to obtain cannabis. (Bookman, 2/6)

The teenagers pour off buses near Denver’s Union Station under a baking September sun. Giggling with excitement at skipping out on Friday classes, they join a host of others assembled near the terminal. Native American drummers and dancers rouse the crowd, and there’s a festive feeling in the air. But this is no festival. The message these young people have come to send to their city, to their state, to the nation — to the world of adults — is serious. Deadly serious. “We won’t die from old age,” reads one of the signs they hoist above their heads. “We’ll die from climate change.” (Plautz, 2/3)

Toward the end of his junior year of college, Joey Solomon contracted a fever of a hundred and three degrees. When it didn’t subside after several weeks, his parents retrieved him from his apartment, in Brooklyn, and rushed him to a health center near their family home, in Queens. Solomon spent the next month under the study of ultrasound technicians and surgical oncologists, who found an oblong tumor stuck to his sciatic nerve. The suddenness of this discovery stunned him. An art student at the time, Solomon had sat out of the term’s final classes with what he thought was a bad cold. (Orbey, 2/6)

It’s been over three years since US regulators greenlit the nation’s first in-human test of Crispr’s disease-fighting potential, more than three years of waiting to find out if the much-hyped gene-editing technique could be safely used to beat back tough-to-treat cancers. Today, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford finally revealed the first published report describing the trial. The highly anticipated results showed that the procedure is both safe and feasible; the Crispr’d cells went where they were supposed to go and survived for longer than expected. They didn’t cure anyone’s cancer, but they didn’t kill anyone, either, which means the results hold significant promise for the future of Crispr-based medicines. (Molteni, 2/6)

In preparation for this month’s column, I set alerts to notify me of news about food safety. At least one or two popped up every day: Ping: A multistate outbreak of salmonella tied to ground beef resulted in nine hospitalizations and one death. Ping: A flour recall linked to an outbreak of E. coli that sickened 21 people in 9 states expands. Ping: A mysterious multistate listeria outbreak claimed two lives. But on November 22, the warnings really hit home. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised people not to eat romaine lettuce from the Salinas Valley in Northern California (or of unknown province) because it was linked to an E. coli outbreak involving the same virulent strain that caused several other outbreaks in the previous two years. Since January 2018, the CDC has reported that 474 Americans have fallen ill, 219 have been hospitalized, and six have died in multistate outbreaks of E. coli linked to leafy greens — primarily romaine. (Carr, 2/5)

The Trump administration released the Healthy Adult Opportunity last week, providing a historic level of flexibility for states to design a Medicaid program tailored to the unique needs of their adult beneficiaries, while holding states accountable for improving quality and ensuring access. Unfortunately, it hasn’t taken long — even by Washington’s standards — for talking points with a dubious relationship to reality to start circulating among defenders of the status quo. (CMS Administrator Seema Verma, 2/6)

Thwarted on the issue in Congress, the Trump administration announced last Thursday that it was inviting states to end Medicaid as we know it. That’s not what President Trump’s health officials said, of course. In a detailed letter, they encouraged states to submit proposals to change the way that a big chunk of Medicaid — the joint federal-state health program for the poor — is paid for. Once accepted, these proposals will afford states “new levels of flexibility” while “providing federal taxpayers with greater budget certainty.” (Nicholas Bagley, 2/6)

The images out of Wuhan are chilling. In the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, health officials in white hazmat suits hover over the body of a victim. Crowds of ordinary people, their faces obscured by surgical masks, try to carry on as normal. As the United States, Australia, Russia, Japan and many other countries announce travel restrictions to and from China, it was only a matter of time before paranoia about coronavirus and Asians would spread as well. On Jan. 30, Los Angeles officials warned that a fake letter circulating on Facebook and email falsely claimed that five people in Carson, a city south of downtown Los Angeles, had contracted coronavirus and named five local businesses in an Asian neighborhood as being connected to the outbreak. (Tamara Venit-Shelton, 2/7)

Just in the last few days, as the World Health Organization declared a Global Health Emergency and a similar Public Health Emergency declaration was made in the U.S., there has been growing evidence of possible person to person transmission of the Wuhan coronavirus, and it is increasingly likely that people can be contagious even before the appearance of symptoms.  So, it should come as no surprise that public concerns about this new public health threat are also on the rise. Still, many questions remain unanswered and unanswerable at the moment. (Irwin Redlener, 2/6)  

A recent report from the American Cancer Society says the U.S. cancer death rate fell by 2.2% in 2017 alone, the biggest single year drop ever recorded. Part of this success stems from new immunotherapy treatments and so-called targeted therapies that stop the action of molecules key to cancer growth. This means that the 21st Century Cures Act is doing its job: accelerating medical innovation and streamlining the advancement of treatment options and products. (Sarah Chamberlain, 2/6)

Early in my medical training, I read a landmark case study about a 12-year-old boy who wrote a suicide note to his mother saying he would rather die than go through puberty. I later met teenagers who tightly bound their chests — knowing that it could result in fractured ribs — because the emotional pain of seeing their breasts was much worse than any imaginable physical pain. These children are transgender, and they account for almost 2 percent of youth in the United States. They are suffering from the psychological pain of having a body that doesn’t match their gender identity. I’ve dedicated my medical and research career to better understanding their mental health. (Jack Turban, 2/6)

In 2012, when Rush Limbaugh spewed hateful rhetoric about me because I was fighting for access to reproductive health care, it was a national scandal. In 2020, when President Donald Trump spews hateful rhetoric about access to health care and awards Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom, it’s the State of the Union. In 2012, I was a law student. In 2020, I’m proud to be the president of Voices for Progress, where we fight for comprehensive, affordable access to health care for all, among other issues. We’re committed to not allowing Limbaugh and Trump’s hateful, discriminatory views about who deserves what health care to become this nation’s policy. (Sandra Fluke, 2/7)

Results like what I received from 23andMe can be difficult to understand. Although the online service offers plenty of tutorials and explainer videos, those don’t feel like enough when faced with a serious health situation. I still had many questions. Did the results mean I would definitely get cancer? Were there other parts of my DNA that were keeping me safe? What was my next step? Was surgery inevitable? To answer these questions, I needed more than a tutorial. I needed a genetic counselor — a human being to hear my questions and give me guidance based on deep knowledge. Fortunately, I was able to connect with a counselor just a few days after I received my 23andMe results. (Dorothy Pomerantz, 2/7)

‘Why were you given that much medication in the first place?” I often find myself wondering that as I treat patients with a history of suicide attempts who have intentionally overdosed on their 90-day supply of medication. As an inpatient psychiatrist, I see the lucky ones—those who are still alive. Many of these patients struggle with chronic suicidality and shouldn’t be prescribed large quantities of medication as a matter of safety. Yet with regularity they tell me their insurers wouldn’t pay for smaller amounts. I know this problem well, encountering it frequently when prescribing. (Brian Barnett, 2/6)

When it comes to the scary behavior San Franciscans see on our streets — people ranting at no one, stripping off their clothes or threatening strangers — there’s often a clear culprit: methamphetamines. Starting this spring, there will finally be a clear, short-term answer: a sobering center designed specifically for those high on meth. Believed to be the nation’s first sobering center aimed at people experiencing meth-induced psychosis rather than high on any sort of drug, the facility will open late this spring on a city-owned parking lot at 180 Jones St. in the Tenderloin. (Heather Knight, 2/6)