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The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with plans to deny green cards to immigrants who are thought to be likely to make even occasional and minor use of public benefits like Medicaid, food stamps and housing vouchers. The vote was 5 to 4, with the court’s conservative justices in the majority. The court’s brief order gave no reasons for lifting preliminary injunctions that had blocked the new program. Challenges to the program will continue to move forward in courts around the nation. (Liptak, 1/27)

The justices' order came by a 5-4 vote and reversed a ruling from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that had kept in place a nationwide hold on the policy following lawsuits against it. The court's four liberal justices, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, voted to prevent the policy from taking effect. (Sherman, 1/27)

In imposing an injunction blocking it, Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge George Daniels on Oct. 11 called the rule "repugnant to the American Dream" and a "policy of exclusion in search of a justification." The administration asked the high court to let the rule go into effect even before the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules on Trump's appeal of the injunction. The 2nd Circuit is considering the matter on an expedited basis, with legal papers to be submitted by Feb. 14 and arguments expected soon afterward. (Chung, 1/27)

Under the new policy, immigrants would be suspect if they are in the United States legally and use public benefits — such as Medicaid, food stamps or housing assistance — too often or are deemed likely to someday rely on them. The new criteria provide “positive” and “negative” factors for immigration officials to weigh as they decide on green-card applications. Negative factors include if a person is unemployed, dropped out of high school or is not fluent in English. Immigrant groups have protested the rules and denounced the Supreme Court’s action. “It’s a sad day in America when the U.S. Supreme Court affirms a completely discriminatory policy that measures the worth of a person — not by the strength of his or her character — but by the size of the person’s bank account,” said a statement from the National Partnership for New Americans. (Barnes and Sacchetti, 1/27)

The government has long had authority to block immigrants who were likely to become public charges, but the term has never been formally defined. The DHS proposed to fill that void, adding noncash benefits and such factors as age, financial resources, employment history, education and health. (Williams, 1/27)

For decades, the U.S. has asked most green card and visa petitioners to prove they won't be a "public charge" on the country, but the new rule scraps Clinton-era guidance that said only the use of cash benefits could be analyzed by immigration caseworkers. The Trump administration has defended the new restrictions as a way to ensure immigrants are "self-sufficient." But opponents believe the policy is an attempt by the White House to circumvent laws passed by Congress by instituting what's essentially a "wealth test" designed to limit the immigration of poorer people from developing countries. (Montoya-Galvez, 1/27)

Several federal judges had blocked the ban from taking effect, including U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton of Oakland. In an injunction in October covering California, three other states and the District of Columbia, Hamilton said the use of public benefits “improves public health and welfare” and noted that congressional Republicans had proposed to add an identical restriction to a 1996 immigration bill, but dropped it when President Bill Clinton threatened a veto. (Egelko, 1/27)

The White House called the court’s order a “massive win for American taxpayers, American workers and the American Constitution. This decision allows the government to implement regulations effectuating longstanding federal law that newcomers to this country must be financially self-sufficient.” (Kendall and Hackman, 1/27)

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) said on Monday that she is still working to put a permanent end to the rule. “Generations of immigrants have come to this country with little more than a dream in their pockets, but the president’s Public Charge Rule is an egregious attempt to infringe upon the values of our nation," James said in a statement. "We have already received a favorable decision in the district court and are continuing our fight against the Trump Administration in the Court of Appeals.” (Neidig, 1/27)

Leaders of many healthcare organizations, including the American Hospital Association, America's Essential Hospitals, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have warned that the rule will hurt public health efforts and reduce providers' ability to serve millions of low-income children and families. They point to evidence that fear created by the proposal already has reduced participation in health programs. (Cohrs, 1/27)

Officials in Connecticut and other Democratic states were dealt a blow Monday when the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to press ahead with a rule that makes it more difficult for immigrants to obtain a green card if they have used – or are likely to use – public benefits such as food stamps or Medicaid. The court’s justices voted 5 to 4 in favor of lifting preliminary injunctions that had blocked the regulations. Challenges to the new rule, known as the “public charge,” will proceed in courts around the nation. (Carlesso, 1/27)

Presidential candidates can’t stop talking about insulin. At a campaign stop here on Sunday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar retold the now-familiar story of Alec Smith, whose highly publicized death from insulin rationing in 2017 sparked nationwide outrage. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has vowed to lower the drug’s price on her first day in office, lambasted Eli Lilly, one of just three U.S. insulin manufacturers, at an Iowa rally the day before. And since July, when Sen. Bernie Sanders joined a highly publicized “insulin caravan” seeking cheaper prices in Canada, he has flooded this state with television ads that picture him brandishing an insulin vial in outrage. Even in a primary dominated by broader health care issues, insulin has emerged as particularly alluring campaign fodder for Democrats. (Facher, 1/28)

The House Democrats' campaign arm will spend more than $1 million on national television ads hitting Republicans on the issue of high prescription drug prices. The digital and TV ads from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) argue that House Republicans and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are standing in the way of Congress passing legislation aimed at lowering drug prices. (Hellmann, 1/27)

Democratic presidential Michael Bloomberg would seek to reduce the cost of prescription drugs with a plan that includes limiting new brand-name drugs to a single patent to get lower-priced generics to the market faster. There have been unsuccessful efforts to limit so-called “evergreening,” or obtaining multiple patents to extend exclusivity in the past. But the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate said he would work with Congress to ensure only qualifying products get 20-year patent protection to stop manufacturers from slowing the introduction of generics. (Niquette, 1/27)

Martin Shkreli, a former pharmaceutical executive serving a seven-year prison sentence for defrauding investors, was accused on Monday of trying to maintain a monopoly over the lifesaving drug Daraprim through anticompetitive tactics. The Federal Trade Commission and the office of the New York attorney general, Letitia James, jointly sued Vyera Pharmaceuticals and the company’s owners, Mr. Shkreli and Kevin Mulleady, in a federal court in Manhattan. (Kang, 1/27)

More than four years after Martin Shkreli incensed Americans by raising the price of a life-saving medicine by more than 4,000%, the Federal Trade Commission and the New York attorney general sued the infamous “pharma bro” for trying to corner the market for such drugs. The joint action accused Shkreli and Vyera Pharmaceuticals, which was formerly known as Turing Pharmaceuticals, of scheming to “illegally” prevent would-be generic competitors from selling a version of Daraprim. Shortly after purchasing the decades-old drug, which is the only drug approved in the U.S. to treat a serious parasite infection that afflicts people with HIV, the list price was raised from $17.50 to $750 per tablet. (Silverman, 1/27)

Lowering health costs emerged as a major part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2020 agenda earlier this month when he unveiled plans to get state government in the business of selling prescription drugs. California would be the first state to create its own drug label, which would contract with existing manufacturers to produce lower-cost drugs. Newsom said he’s already in negotiations related to the plan. (Bollag, 1/27)

Following a two-year investigation, Roche (RHHBY) was fined $14 million by antitrust authorities in Romania for using different tactics to impede competition to a pair of its cancer medicines, the latest effort by European governments to crack down on anti-competitive practices. In one instance, Roche allegedly monopolized the market for Rituxan and Herceptin by undercutting rival bidders in auctions that were held to supply a national program for cancer medicines as well as hospitals. Specifically, the drug maker sold the medicines at higher wholesale prices to two distributors, which were also bidding, than to its own subsidiary, making it difficult for these companies to compete. (Silverman, 1/27)

Acceleron Pharma said Monday that a mid-stage clinical trial involving an experimental drug for pulmonary arterial hypertension achieved all its goals, potentially opening a new way to treat a rare and fatal disease that damages blood vessels in the lungs. The Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech secured U.S. approval in November for its first drug, but building on that initial success with a second medicine has been a struggle. Monday’s positive results will need to be confirmed in larger studies, but should help ease investor concerns about Acceleron’s pipeline. (Feuerstein, 1/27)

The Chinese government scrambled to contain not only the coronavirus epidemic but also growing expressions of public fury over the management of the crisis as the death toll rose on Tuesday to at least 106. China’s National Immigration Administration on Tuesday encouraged Chinese citizens to reconsider the timing of overseas travel to curtail the spread of the coronavirus, it said on its WeChat account. That came as the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged American citizens to avoid nonessential travel to China. (Buckley and Myers, 1/27)

Last Wednesday evening, top officials in the central Chinese city of Wuhan settled into their seats at an auditorium for a Lunar New Year gala — even as a new virus that originated in their city was spreading rapidly. Dozens of actors, actresses and musicians performed, some despite having sniffles and sneezes, the Hubei Folk Song and Dance Ensemble said in a now-deleted social media post. (Kang, 1/28)

With criticism of the government spreading on social media, Mr. Xi has repeatedly instructed authorities to “strengthen the guidance of public opinions”—language seen as a call for censorship in Communist Party-speak. State media outlets have been told to publish only information released through official channels, Chinese journalists say. They have also been instructed to focus on promoting “positive energy” and to avoid any critical reporting of officialdom, they say. (Wei, 1/28)

The outbreak is a critical test for President Xi Jinping, offering insights into how Beijing’s central authority works — or doesn’t work — in times of alarm. Chinese social media usually censor criticism of government officials. But angry posts blaming Wuhan officials’ ineptitude and dishonesty for exacerbating the coronavirus outbreak have been allowed to come to a boil online, a strategic ploy by the central government to find a scapegoat. (Su, 1/27)

Late Monday, a top U.S. health official criticized Chinese authorities for not inviting U.S. and other international investigative agencies to join them in researching the new virus. While China has been more transparent than it was during the 2003 SARS outbreak, U.S. officials are still getting their information through press briefings rather than from direct transfer of scientific data, said Anthony S. Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. (Shih, Sun, Denyer and Achenbach, 1/27)

After suffering from a fever and breathing problems for more than 15 days, Xiao Shibing, a 51-year-old resident of Wuhan, China, finally sought help at a hospital. Despite the symptoms, he was not tested for the new coronavirus — a lapse suggesting that there may be far more cases of the virus than are being officially reported. Instead, Mr. Xiao was told that he had a viral chest infection, so he went back home. As he grew sicker, he went to three other hospitals. (Wee, 1/27)

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang promised reinforcements to Wuhan and the Hubei province as the local government faces accusations that it has not responded to the outbreak of a new coronavirus fast enough, according to a Reuters report. Li on Monday announced that 2,500 more medical workers will arrive in the area in the next two days, Reuters reported. He said he will “inspect and direct” methods to control the virus in Wuhan and thanked the medical workers in the city, as the number of deaths in China due to the virus rose to 81. (Coleman, 1/27)

Hong Kong will close some border checkpoints and restrict flights, trains and ferries from the mainland, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Tuesday. The Chinese government is also suspending visas for visitors to the territory, she said. (Bloomberg News, 1/27)

Yang Zhongyi was still waiting on Monday for a coronavirus test in the Chinese city of Wuhan two weeks after she started to show signs of a fever, even though doctors privately told her family that she almost certainly has been infected, her son Zhang Changchun told Reuters. (Chen and Cadell, 1/27)

The head of the World Health Organization said on Tuesday he is confident in China's ability to contain a new coronavirus that has killed 106 people and he called for calm, saying he did not think foreigners should be evacuated, Chinese media reported. As concern mounted about the impact of the coronavirus on the world's second-biggest economy, Chinese authorities reported a surge in cases, while the United States warned citizens against travel to China and financial markets wilted. (1/28)

When Ebola was spreading in West Africa in 2014, Donald Trump took to Twitter. “STOP THE FLIGHTS!,” he blasted in all capital letters. “NO VISAS FROM EBOLA STRICKEN COUNTRIES.” He even cast doubt on the honesty of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tweeting: “Ebola is much easier to transmit than the CDC and government representatives are admitting. Spreading all over Africa — and fast.” (Fox, 1/28)

As the number of cases of the pneumonia-like coronavirus from China continue to grow across the globe, President Trump on Monday tweeted that the U.S. is “in very close communication with China concerning the virus.” “Very few cases reported in USA, but strongly on watch,” he wrote. “We have offered China and President Xi any help that is necessary. Our experts are extraordinary!” (Weixel, 1/27)

Former Vice President Joe Biden wrote Monday that President Trump is the “worst possible person” to deal with the outbreak of coronavirus. Biden, a leading Democratic presidential candidate, wrote an op-ed in USA Today calling out Trump for moves he said have weakened global health security and touting his own response to the Ebola outbreak in 2014. (Sullivan, 1/27)

As hundreds of Americans prepare to evacuate Wuhan, the central Chinese city at the heart of a new virus outbreak that has killed over 100, San Francisco native Doug Perez is staying behind. It’s not that he’s unconcerned. Perez, 28, and his girlfriend have hunkered down in their apartment for the past five days. They’ve argued. They’ve fretted over missed food deliveries. They’ve dubbed their Labrador, Chubby, “Apocalypse Dog,” venturing out for short walks on deserted streets only after fitting him with a mask. (Kang, 1/28)

U.S. health officials on Monday said they are monitoring 110 people across 26 states who might have the coronavirus, but said that there were no new cases confirmed overnight and said the risk in the U.S. remains low. There have been five confirmed cases of the virus in the country. (Weixel, 1/27)

With isolated cases of the dangerous new coronavirus cropping up in a number of states, public health officials say it is only a matter of time before the virus appears in New York City. As a result, hospitals have been on the lookout for patients with recent travel involving Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus is believed to have originated. And they have urged anyone who recently traveled there — or who have been in contact with someone who has — to quickly seek medical care if they have any respiratory or flulike symptoms. (Goldstein and Singer, 1/27)

When the first U.S. case of a new coronavirus spreading throughout China was confirmed last week in Washington state, public health workers were well prepared to respond, building on lessons learned during the outbreak of measles that sickened 87 people in the state in 2019. As of Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had confirmed five cases of infection from the new coronavirus in the U.S., including two in California, one in Illinois and one in Arizona. (Stone, 1/28)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised its travel warning Monday to a level 3, its highest alert level, urging U.S. citizens to avoid all nonessential travel to China. (Shih, Denyer, Taylor and Thebault, 1/27)

Anyone who must travel should talk with a health-care provider first, the CDC said, especially older adults and travelers with underlying health issues who may be at risk for more severe effects of the disease. (Weixel, 1/27)

Nancy Messonnier, director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters on a call that officials are expected to soon announce travel recommendations amid the growing outbreak. As of Sunday, there are more than 2,000 confirmed cases worldwide — the majority in China — and 56 have been confirmed deaths. The CDC is advising against nonessential travel to Wuhan, and it recommends people traveling more broadly throughout China take enhanced precautions. (Ehley, 1/27)

The CDC warning says those who travel should avoid all contact with sick people, animal markets and products that come from animals. ... “We understand people may worry about the new coronavirus,” said Dr. Robert Redfield on Monday. “In today’s connected world, an outbreak anywhere can be a risk everywhere. Risk is dependent on exposure.” (Darnell, 1/27)

When are people contagious? One of the luckiest breaks the world got with the SARS outbreak of 2002-2003 was that people weren’t contagious until they developed symptoms. The same is true of MERS. As a result, it became easier for health officials to try to limit spread once they identified a new case. Public health experts watching this outbreak unfold have been hoping 2019-nCoV, which is a member of the same virus family, would follow that pattern. Now they’re not so sure. (Branswell and Joseph, 1/28)

Very little is still known about this virus, which for the moment carries the scientific name 2019-nCoV, meaning “novel coronavirus.” Scientists are racing to learn more. Key questions to answer are how long the incubation period is, how long someone is infectious, and whether or not people can be asymptomatic and spread the virus, says Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. (McKay, 1/27)

U.S. drugmakers are shipping antiviral drugs to Chinese health authorities to assess whether the medicines could help contain the explosion of respiratory virus infections sweeping the country. AbbVie Inc. and Johnson & Johnson are among the drugmakers that have begun shipping drugs approved to treat HIV, while Gilead Sciences Inc. is exploring whether it should send an antiviral therapy it is developing. (Hopkins, 1/27)

Surgical-style masks at U.S. pharmacies have reportedly begun selling out in multiple U.S. cities amid fears of the new form of coronavirus. The BBC reported Monday that stores have been selling out of the masks in Washington, D.C., and Seattle, with stockpiling and runs on stores reported in New York and Los Angeles. (Bowden, 1/27)

Officials have been on close watch for cases of so-called secondary transmission, in which original patients who came from China could infect others in the community. Anxiety is growing amid evidence that the disease has an incubation period of as long as two weeks before those infected start to show symptoms. That raises the possibility that people could travel and eventually infect others before realizing they have the illness. But Messonnier said that so far there has been no clear evidence that the virus can spread during the incubation period before patients have symptoms. (Langreth, 1/27)

Computer engineers at Johns Hopkins University created a nifty online dashboard that allows the public to track the spread of new coronavirus worldwide, but the tool caused some consternation Monday among media and public health officials in California. That’s because the dashboard map pinpointed a case of coronavirus in the Fresno area rather than in two Southern California counties, as public health officials had announced over the weekend. (Anderson, 1/27)

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Monday that the city is activating its emergency operations center to centralize a response to any local cases of the deadly outbreak of coronavirus. The virus, with its epicenter in Wuhan, China, has so far sickened five people in the United States, including two in Southern California. (Fracassa, 1/27)

Two people from New Hampshire who recently traveled to Wuhan City, China, have become ill and are being tested for coronavirus, the newly discovered virus that has sickened hundreds, state health authorities said. The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement the two people, who were not identified, sought medical care for respiratory ailments and are now recovering. (McDonald, 1/27)

Philadelphia health officials are investigating whether a Chinese exchange student at William Penn Charter School may have contracted coronavirus, the respiratory illness that has sickened thousands and killed 80 people in China, where it originated. The school later told that it was ending the exchange program. The possible victim was among a group of 18 high school students and three adults from China who are visiting Penn Charter. They had a connecting flight in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, on the way to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York earlier this month, Sharon Sexton, a spokesperson for the school, said in a statement. (Gantz, 1/27)

After multiple false alarms in recent days, Texas health officials confirmed Monday that there are no confirmed cases of the deadly coronavirus in the state. All four suspected cases of the virus have tested negative, said Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.The virus has killed dozens of people and shut down a city in China, health officials said Monday. (Fernandez, 1/27)

Three people who recently returned to Colorado from China were flagged as possibly having contracted a newly discovered strain of the coronavirus, but so far the state hasn’t had a confirmed case. Testing ruled out the virus for two of the patients, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still investigating the third case, state health officials said Monday. The new coronavirus causes a fever, coughing and shortness of breath — all symptoms that can come from more common illnesses, like seasonal flu. (Wingerter, 1/27)

Laboratory results from two possible Minnesota cases of coronavirus have come back negative, meaning that no cases from the December outbreak of the disease in Wuhan, China, have been confirmed here. State officials on Friday said they were monitoring people who’d traveled to China within the past two weeks and had developed flu-like symptoms. (Nelson, 1/27)

George Bush Intercontinental Airport will now screen travelers for the coronavirus as a precaution the airport announced Monday night. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named the Houston airport among 15 others that would begin testing. Initially, the CDC only required screening at five major U.S. airports, none of which were located in Texas. (Gill, 1/27)

A Maryland resident is being tested for the new coronavirus that has sickened thousands and killed dozens in an outbreak that began in — and remains centered in — China but has crept to other countries in recent days. The person or their location was not identified by the Maryland Department of Health, which said the patient is in good condition and being monitored while awaiting test results. (Cohn, 1/27)

Northeast Ohio’s three largest health systems are screening patients for the Novel Coronavirus, which has caused a pneumonia outbreak in China. The Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and MetroHealth confirmed they are starting to screen patients who recently traveled to China, based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The epicenter of the virus is Wuhan, China. (Christ, 1/24)

The University of Michigan has issued a travel warning for students and faculty planning travel to China in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Other Michigan universities are also carefully watching to see whether restrictions from travel are needed. U-M, Michigan State University and Wayne State University all told the Free Press they currently don't have students in the region of the country most affected. (Jordan Shamus and Jesse, 1/27)

A new suspected case of the novel coronavirus believed to have originated in Wuhan, China, has been identified in Washtenaw County, state health officials said Monday. A sample from that person — the fourth from Michigan — was sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the global coronavirus outbreak continues to grow. (Jordan Shamus, 1/27)

The Wuhan coronavirus is starting to infect President Donald Trump’s beloved market rally. The president weighed in on the coronavirus Monday just as markets tumbled worldwide, including a drop in U.S. stocks that erased this month’s gains. Meanwhile, China’s financial regulators said they will suspend trading on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges for a longer period of time after a long holiday as fear over the extent of the outbreak spread. (White, 1/27)

Global markets saw heavy losses on Monday with the Dow plunging 1.6 percent. That trend is continuing across Asia on Tuesday as markets are opening down after the Lunar New Year’s holiday. Both South Korea and Japan’s markets have dropped nearly 3 percent. (Shih and Denyer, 1/28)

Anxiety over the outbreak hit financial markets around the world Monday, sending stocks from Japan to Germany to the U.S. to their worst days in months. “We always say that, barring an exogenous event, things look fine,” said Michael Farr, president and chief executive of investment-management firm Farr, Miller & Washington. “I don’t think markets anticipated how contagious this disease has proven to be and how quickly it’s spreading.” (Otani, 1/28)

The number of adolescents who vape has more than doubled since 2017. An estimated 28% of high-schoolers and 11% of middle-schoolers are current vape users, according to a recent national survey by the CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. State tactics include levying hefty taxes on vaping products, restricting vape store zoning, requiring warning labels and otherwise limiting the sale and marketing of nicotine vaping liquids. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia had raised the smoking age to 21 for both cigarettes and vaping when in late December the Trump administration raised the national smoking age to 21, effective immediately. (Vestal, 1/28)

People who worked at ground zero after the World Trade Center attack in 2001 have higher rates of cancer than the general population, a new study has found. Since 2002, researchers have followed 28,729 people who worked on the debris pile or at the site immediately after the 9/11 attack. Average time working at the site was 52 days. (Bakalar, 1/27)

Children in the United States have been getting more preventive checkups and having fewer sick visits in recent years, a new study suggests. Researchers examined data on more than 71 million pediatric primary care visits from 2008 to 2016 for children with private health insurance. During the study period, overall visits decreased 14.4 percent, driven by a decline in sick visits, researchers say in JAMA Pediatrics. (Rapaport, 1/28)

African-American men with prostate cancer are almost twice as likely to die from the illness as white men with the same disease. Disparities in medical care, rather than racial differences in the course of the cancer, may be a large part of the explanation, a new study suggests. In a six-year study, researchers followed 18,201 black and 41,834 white prostate cancer patients who all got the same care through the Veterans Affairs health care system. (Bakalar, 1/27)

Between 2000 and 2017, the suicide rate in the U.S. increased by 40%, with blue-collar workers in industries such as mining, oil and gas extraction, construction, agriculture, transportation, and warehousing most at risk, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study used data from 32 states — including Pennsylvania and New Jersey — that participated in the 2016 National Violent Death Reporting System, which combined data from death certificates, coroner and medical examiner reports, and law enforcement reports. Researchers looked at the suicide rates by profession for 20,975 people, ages 16 to 64. They found that both male and female workers in construction, mining, oil, and gas had the highest suicide rates. (Ao, 1/27)

Johnson & Johnson chief executive Alex Gorsky told a New Jersey jury weighing punishment for the company over cancer claims that he relied on internal experts when he went on national TV to insist the company’s baby powder was safe and didn’t contain asbestos. With J&J facing almost 17,000 lawsuits from users of talc-based powders, Gorsky testified Monday for the first time in court for the punishment phase of a trial in the company’s hometown of New Brunswick. In October, a separate jury awarded $37.2 million in damages to four people. (Feeley, 1/27)

A bipartisan group of senators is calling on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to end the labeling of plant-based products as milk, cheese or yogurt. In a letter to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, the coalition of dairy-land senators urged the agency to issue rules to “ensure that dairy terms may only be used to describe products that include dairy.” “Dairy farmers across our nation work hard to ensure their products are healthy, nutrient-dense, and in compliance with FDA regulations regarding the use of dairy terms," the senators wrote in a letter this week. (Lane, 1/24)

A single dose of psilocybin, a compound found in "magic mushrooms," provides long-term relief of anxiety and depression in cancer patients, a new study finds. In fact, cancer patients who were given psilocybin reported reductions in anxiety, depression, hopelessness, demoralization, and death anxiety more than four years after receiving the dose in combination with psychotherapy. (Senthilingam, 1/28)

Kellogg’s, the multinational food manufacturer based in Battle Creek, Mich., is taking a stand. But very quietly. At the end of 2019, the company made a commitment to phase out by 2025 wheat and oats on which farmers have used glyphosate as a drying agent, according to Kellogg’s chief sustainability officer Amy Senter. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, the Bayer-Monsanto weedkiller that is the most heavily used herbicide in the United States. (Reiley, 1/27)

Swiss food giant Nestle on Monday bulked up its medical nutrition business by buying Allergan's Zenpep, a product for people whose pancreases do not provide enough enzymes to properly digest fats, proteins and sugars. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Zenpep had sales of $237 million in 2018. (1/27)

When the C.I.A. strapped down Khalid Shaikh Mohammed at a secret site in Poland in 2003, those inside the cell included a three-man waterboarding team, black-masked guards — and a doctor. The doctor’s stated role was to monitor the health of the detainee. He also kept count of each near drowning. (Carol Rosenberg, 1/27)

A CIA psychologist testified here Monday that he told self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed that if there was another attack on America, he would kill Mohammed’s son. James Mitchell, who designed, oversaw and often carried out the harsh interrogation program in the CIA’s secret black-site prisons, said that in retrospect the threat was probably made in poor judgment but added that “I wanted him to remember it.” (McDermott, 1/27)

A “bathroom bill” to regulate the restroom choice of transgender people has failed in South Dakota. So has a bill that would have required high school athletes to play on a sports team according to their sex at birth, not their gender identity. But it is a new year and a new legislative session, and a group of South Dakota lawmakers is trying to pass a new restriction on transgender teenagers that the lawmakers say would prevent unnecessary medical procedures. (Bosman and Smith, 1/27)

Rep. Fred Deutsch on Monday defended a statement he made last week comparing gender confirmation surgeries to medical experiments conducted during the Holocaust. But Deutsch, who is the son of a Holocaust survivor and had family members killed at Auschwitz, told the Argus Leader that he absolutely wasn't saying doctors who treat transgender children are the same as Nazis. "I've been to a whole bunch of Holocaust museums all over the world. It's very personal to me. It's just a simple reflection that the pictures seem similar to me," he told the Argus Leader. (Kaczke, 1/27)

Doctors could be jailed for providing transgender youth with identity-related medical treatments under a new bill in the Kentucky legislature, the latest in a series of conservative legislative efforts in several states aimed at transgender minors. The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Savannah Maddox, would make it a felony for medical providers to prescribe medications, including puberty-blocking or hormone treatments, or conduct surgeries, for anyone younger than 18 with the intent to alter their gender. (Kenning, 1/27)

HHS Secretary Alex Azar on Monday voiced frustration over stakeholders who are "fiercely" pushing back against the department's proposed interoperability rules. "Health records today are stored in a segmented, balkanized system," Azar said during keynote remarks at the 2020 annual meeting of the department's Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in Washington, D.C. "Unfortunately, some are defending the balkanized, outdated status quo and fighting our proposals fiercely." (Cohen, 1/27)

While a national patient identifier could help ease patient-matching woes among providers, it's not the ultimate solution, experts shared during the 2020 annual meeting of HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. "We know unique identifiers would be helpful, but not a panacea," said Ben Moscovitch, project director for health IT at the Pew Charitable Trusts, during a panel discussion on unique patient identifiers Monday. "It would be used in addition to the other demographic data already in use today for matching." (Cohen, 1/27)

Sepsis is killing one in five people globally each year, according to an analysis published in the Lancet this month, more than twice the previous estimate. Some top health-care organizations are tapping machine learning to spot the illness before it turns deadly. Also called blood poisoning, sepsis is an out-of-control immune response to an infection that can lead to multiple organ failure and death. Anyone can develop sepsis, though it is more common among the very old or very young and people with compromised immune systems. (McCormick, 1/28)

A San Francisco-based health information technology company will pay $145 million to resolve criminal and civil charges that it helped set up an electronic health records system that encouraged physicians to prescribe opioids to patients who might not need them, federal prosecutors in Vermont said Monday. Vermont U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan said the company Practice Fusion, Inc., took kickbacks from a major opioid company in exchange for using its software to influence physicians to prescribe opioid pain medication. (Ring, 1/27)

The DOJ said the case marks the first criminal action taken against an EHR vendor. Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, which purchased Practice Fusion in 2018, said the settlement involves conduct from before the acquisition. Practice Fusion admitted to soliciting and receiving kickbacks of nearly $1 million from a "major opioid company" that the Justice Department didn't name in exchange for creating a clinical decision-support alert that would "cause doctors to prescribe more extended release opioids," according to the agency. (Cohen, 1/27)

As pressure mounts on pharmaceutical wholesalers over their role in the opioid crisis, McKesson (MCK) agreed to pay $175 million to settle a lawsuit filed by investors who claimed the big distributor failed to properly oversee suspicious shipments of the addictive painkillers. Besides the payout, McKesson also agreed to take several steps to bolster corporate governance, including separating the roles of the chairman and chief executive officer, creating term limits for board members, reforming the board compliance committee, generating board reports concerning complaints about compliance issues, and toughening clawback policies for executives who fail to perform properly, according to the stipulation agreement. (Silverman, 1/27)

Buprenorphine — intended only for addicted pregnant women and nursing mothers — was quickly becoming a hot product on the opioid black market, and this Johnson City pharmacy wanted its cut of the profits, records show. In a city with a population of fewer than 65,000, Blankenship Pharmacy ordered so much buprenorphine — more than 300,000 doses in eight years — even one of the drugmakers was suspicious. “We can find no information demonstrating that this retail pharmacy is specializing in treating pregnant women or nursing mothers, nor can we find any relationship with any medical practice that appears to specialize in treating pregnant women or nursing mothers,” an investigator with Teva Pharmaceuticals wrote. “This pharmacy appears to have been the largest retail purchaser in the U.S.” (Satterfield, 1/26)

A lawmaker in Utah has introduced a bill that would prevent people who haven't paid their child support from obtaining permits for hunting and fishing. House Bill 197 was introduced Monday at the request of the state's Office of Recovery Services as an enforcement tool to tackle the $404,160,838 in past due child support in the state, the bill's sponsor Rep. Karianne Lisbonee told CNN in an email. (Silverman, 1/28)

One Republican delegate warns that Virginia is splitting in two. Another would support returning liberal Arlington and Alexandria to the District of Columbia. Lawmakers in West Virginia have offered to annex rural Frederick County, outside Winchester, to liberate it from its rapidly urbanizing home. The change that Democrats promised in last fall’s election campaigns is hitting Richmond with full force, casting new light on political and cultural divisions that have simmered for years. As leaders quickly advance gun control, women’s rights and LGBTQ protections, many Republicans charge that they’re trampling on the interests of a new minority: rural conservatives who long held sway in the Capitol. (Schneider, 1/27)

A bill that would require doctors and other health workers to provide life-sustaining care for an infant born alive after a failed abortion attempt was approved by the Kentucky Senate on Monday. The measure sailed through the Senate on a 32-0 vote and heads to the House next. It's the latest in a series of abortion-related bills to surface in the Republican-dominated legislature in recent years. (1/27)

Complaints against Ohio State University's president and one of its former student health directors were filed Monday with the State Medical Board of Ohio in relation to alleged sexual abuse by now-deceased team doctor Richard Strauss, one of his lead accusers said. Because of legal requirements about confidentiality, the medical board won't confirm or comment on such complaints or potential investigations unless they result in disciplinary action. (1/27)

At the heart of his biggest health care initiative as governor, Charlie Baker is proposing a fundamental shift in how Massachusetts delivers care. Baker has called for new mandates to increase the amount of money health care providers and insurers spend in two critical areas: primary care and mental health care. (Dayal McCluskey, 1/28)

Lawmakers on the Massachusetts Legislature’s Cannabis Policy Committee on Friday advanced a redrafted bill that would give the Cannabis Control Commission express authority to review and regulate the mandatory agreements and payments between host communities and marijuana businesses. In addition to having the CCC regulate host community agreements (HCAs), the committee said its bill (S 1126/H 3536) would allow a municipality to waive the requirement to have an HCA, make clear that an HCA may not require any financial obligations beyond the maximum 3 percent of gross sales fee, and clarify that the five-year term of an HCA begins on the day the business opens to customers. (Young, 1/27)

Mississippi's newly sworn-in governor vowed Monday to help "turn the page" for the state's prison system following the deaths of multiple inmates within the past month and a lawsuit filed on behalf of inmates over prison conditions. "All Mississippians must be able to trust that the people in charge of the system are acting with competence to keep them safe," Gov. Tate Reeves said during his state of the state speech. (Maxouris, 1/28)

When Philadelphia became the first big U.S. city to pass a soda tax in 2016, the rest of the country was watching. Mayor Jim Kenney basked in a national spotlight, appearing on CNN as even presidential candidates weighed in on the issue. And public health advocates predicted many others would follow in Philadelphia’s footsteps. Now, as Kenney starts a second term following a 2019 reelection campaign that saw the beverage industry spend about $1.5 million fighting the tax, it seems likely to survive as his signature achievement. But Kenney is still one of relatively few mayors whose city taxes sweetened beverages. (McCrystal, 1/28)

Just after 8 on a warm evening in September, Janae Bell was shooting the breeze with two friends at the Hearst Avenue railroad crossing, sharing some pastries and talking bikes. Over the clanging bells of a Union Pacific freight train rumbling past on the opposite track, they didn’t hear the Amtrak barreling toward them. With seconds to spare, Bell, 41, looked up, screamed “Train!” and dove off the tracks. But when he turned to look for his friends, he said, “They were gone.” (Scheier, 1/27)

A Maryland Senate committee had tough questions Monday night as its members vetted more than two dozen nominees to the University of Maryland Medical System board ― part of the fallout over a self-dealing scandal that rocked the hospital network last year. Members of the Senate’s Executive Nominations Committee are considering 18 appointees to the board, most of whom were nominated by Gov. Larry Hogan after the General Assembly last year passed sweeping reform legislation that forced all the board members to resign and reapply for their posts. (Broadwater, 1/27)

Children’s Wisconsin has received a pledge of $15 million, the largest gift in its history, from an anonymous donor to help fund its five-year plan to improve access to behavioral health care for children and adolescents. The plan, announced in November, is projected to cost $150 million and includes an array of initiatives, such as doubling the number of professionals who provide behavioral health care within Children’s system. (Boulton, 1/27)

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker released the first 10% of $105 million in funding for a new health sciences building on the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville campus Thursday. The initial $10.5 million pays for the planning and design of the new building, which will house nursing, pharmacy, public health, social work and the many other health science programs at the university. (Schmid, 1/27)

The seventh president of Carroll Hospital currently serves in the same capacity at a hospital in Corning, N.Y., and is described as having a “passion for quality.” Garrett Hoover has been named president and chief operating officer of Carroll Hospital and will take over his duties on March 30, according to a Monday news release from LifeBridge Health. (Carroll County Times, 1/27)

Californians who do not receive health insurance through their jobs or public insurance programs have until Friday to sign up for health coverage for 2020 — or face a tax penalty. About 318,000 people have newly enrolled in health insurance through Covered California, the state marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act, since open enrollment began Oct. 15. (Ho, 1/27)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom was a single-payer candidate.The Democrat campaigned hard for the creation of one public insurance program for all Californians. And within hours of taking office last year, he called on the federal government to allow California and other states to create single-payer programs. On Monday, some of the biggest names in California health care policy are convening in Sacramento to fulfill that promise. (Bluth, 1/27)

California utilities could be banned from charging for electricity during power shut-offs and required to reimburse their customers for spoiled food or other financial losses under legislation that cleared the state Senate on Monday. Senate Bill 378, opposed by Pacific Gas & Electric and the state’s two other largest utilities, is a response to the power shut-offs that left millions in the dark last year, a tool the companies began using to reduce the risk of their electrical equipment starting wildfires. (Luna, 1/27)

Swedish Medical Center, preparing for a Tuesday strike of 7,800 registered nurses, nursing assistants and technical and service caregivers, has rescheduled all elective surgeries, patient classes and some other procedures for much of next week. But instead of keeping all urgent and emergent cases the same, the hospital will close two of its seven emergency departments – Ballard and Redmond – as early as Monday evening. Swedish plans to reopen them by Friday morning, according to a news release sent Saturday. (Takahama, 1/25)

Late last year, Melanie Uriegas vowed to take action against a problem that was invisible to her until it swamped her young son. Armed with research, she has lobbied Plano ISD to bring the student-to-student Hope Squad initiative to its campuses. Her message never changes: “I can’t save my son but, in the name of my son, I want to help others.” Like many North Texas districts, Plano has seen an increase in suicide victims in the past four to five years. Just eight months after Jesse’s death, another PISD student, 16-year-old Jaedon Mills, a sophomore at Shepton High School, died by suicide Oct. 6. (Grigsby, 1/27)

Gibbins Advisors, the independent monitor charged with validating HCA Healthcare’s compliance with the promises it made when it acquired Asheville-based Mission Health nearly a year ago, is taking its efforts public in a big way. From Jan. 28 to Feb. 13, the Nashville, Tenn.-based firm has scheduled seven 90-minute meetings open to the public at locations across Western North Carolina to provide information on its “role and scope” as independent monitor and to get feedback on HCA’s performance. (Cotiaux, 1/28)

At least 5,000 Minnesota high school students have traded sex acts for food, shelter, money, drugs or alcohol, according to the state’s first estimate of youth sexual exploitation. Numbers released Monday by the state Department of Health show about 1.5 percent of the 80,000 high school students who took a recent Minnesota Student Survey answered “yes” when asked if they ever traded sex for something of value. (Magan, 1/27)

Another patient at Laguna Honda Hospital has filed a lawsuit against the San Francisco facility in the wake of a widespread patient abuse scandal, alleging misconduct by hospital staffers. The suit, filed last week in San Francisco County Superior Court, alleges that employees took photos of the plaintiff, identified only as Jane Doe, while she was naked, and used the photos for non-medical purposes, distributing them among one another, “exposing (her) to intentional embarrassment and ridicule.” (Cassidy, 1/27)

“Right to Housing” is not a new concept worldwide – France, Scotland and South Africa have such protections in place, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. But Connecticut, which has some of the most expensive housing stock in the nation, is one of the first states to consider such a push. (Rabe Thomas and Carlesso, 1/27)

During last year’s session, the Harvard University and Columbia University -trained physician shepherded a bill to expand HIV prevention efforts for minors. And her legislation aimed at reducing youth sports injuries, although ultimately unsuccessful, sparked an ongoing conversation in Annapolis about the dangers of contact sports for children. Now, Hill, 60, hopes to put that experience to work on Capitol Hill. The Howard County Democrat is among those vying to replace the late Elijah Cummings, who represented Maryland’s 7th Congressional District. (Opilo, 1/28)

Since Texas lawmakers in 2019 legalized some forms of the cannabis plant but not others, marijuana prosecution cases around the state have been thrown into disarray, and enforcement can vary greatly depending on where you live. A new Texas law sought to bring the state in line with a 2018 federal law that legalized hemp while keeping marijuana illegal. The result: widespread confusion.Here’s what the new laws mean for Texans. (Menchaca, 1/28)

China has reported more than 2,700 infections and 82 deaths from its latest coronavirus, and some experts say there could be hundreds of thousands of cases not yet confirmed. The outbreak is exposing the vulnerabilities of China’s top-down government, and the damage is spreading far beyond the mainland. China has been more transparent than it was with the SARS virus in 2002, no doubt in part because its leaders realize they need foreign assistance. But its response hasn’t been up to global standards, and accounts from officials seem to be changing by the hour. (1/27)

Chinese scientists have identified a “wet market”—where live and dead animals, including many wildlife species, are sold for consumption—as the chief suspect for the origin of the Wuhan coronavirus. The virus is closely related to the virus that caused the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, which also was transmitted to humans from a wet market. China closed all markets that sell wildlife and temporarily banned the shipment and sale of wildlife throughout the country. (Christian Walzer and Aili Kang, 1/27)

The latest scary new virus that has captured the world’s horrified attention, caused a lockdown of 56 million people in China, disrupted travel plans around the globe and sparked a run on medical masks from Wuhan, Hubei Province, to Bryan, Texas, is known provisionally as “nCoV-2019.” It’s a clunky moniker for a lurid threat. The name, picked by the team of Chinese scientists who isolated and identified the virus, is short for “novel coronavirus of 2019.” (David Quammen, 1/28)

Public health knows no borders, no boundaries, nor should it. In fact, the more we consider health concerns occurring elsewhere in the world to be our problems too, the better off we will be. Diseases like the deadly Ebola, the highly contagious measles, the immunocompromising HIV or the cancer-causing HPV remain problems in underdeveloped countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East — and they’re our problems, too. We need science rather than hysteria in order to contain them. (Dr. Marc Siegel, 1/27)

How is it that perfectly respectable public-health initiatives, such as vaccines and water fluoridation, give rise to suspicion and conspiracy theories, while an entire industry that’s telling us out-and-out falsehoods in order to take our money gets a free pass? Dietary supplements, people! Where is the outrage? Every year, Americans spend something like $35 billion on vitamins, minerals, botanicals and various other substances that are touted as health-giving but mostly do nothing at all. Nothing at all! (Tamar Haspel, 1/27)

Money talks in Washington, D.C., and no sector of the economy speaks more loudly than the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Its flow of cash has fostered an epidemic of medication overload. Over the past five years, pharma has spent about $1.2 billion lobbying federal lawmakers, far more than any other industry. The industry has massive influence over public policy, much of it devoted in recent months to hindering legislative efforts to lower drug prices. (Shannon Borwnlee and Judith Garber, 1/28)

In mid-January, a woman from Japan was refused the ability to board a plane from Hong Kong to the U.S. unless she submitted to a pregnancy test, after an airline agent determined, incorrectly, that she was in an advanced stage of pregnancy. Immigration and civil rights lawyers went on alert. Airlines stand to be fined for allowing inadmissible persons on their flights into the U.S. As a consequence, the actions of airlines sometimes signal advance knowledge of internal memos or immigration rules about to be formally enacted. (Dina Francesca, 1/27)

Earlier this month, word came to me that my precious daughter Amy had died, probably at the hands of another. Her body was found in an abandoned rental car in an upscale neighborhood of Hermosillo, Mexico, four hours south of the Arizona border. ... About five years ago, in her late 30s, Amy had fallen victim to mental illness. One shrink called it bipolar psychosis; another, schizoaffective disorder. Whatever its name, it gripped my little girl’s psyche and wouldn’t let go. Medication never had an opportunity to help because her fevered brain told her not to take it. Therapy was futile. (Dennis McDougal, 1/26)

Today’s opioid crisis requires no introduction. The deaths, costs and subsequent lawsuits have become front-page articles for many publications and news outlets. As awareness of the problem has increased, Congress has attempted to positively intervene by reducing legislative barriers and improving funding. (Adam Bruggeman, 1/27)

Congress should revoke the Food and Drug Administration’s power to require women to obtain prescriptions to purchase hormonal contraceptives, a change that would reduce the price of birth control pills and finally allow consumers to buy them over the counter. Congress should make this move without requiring insurers to cover over-the-counter contraceptives, which would cause prices to increase. (Michael F. Cannon and Jeffrey A. Singer, 1/27)

In the 1992 movie "Scent of a Woman," Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, played by Al Pacino, gives an Academy Award-winning impassioned speech that references his military service and the wounds of war: “I have seen boys like these, younger than these, their arms torn out, their legs ripped off. But there isn’t nothin’ like the sight of an amputated spirit; there is no prosthetic for that,” he tells the disciplinary board of an elite New England prep school. (Rory E. Riley-Topping, 1/27)