Tag Archives: medical treatments and procedures

US

Minnesota governor signs bill codifying ‘fundamental right’ to abortion into law

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CNN
 — 

Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill into law Tuesday that enshrines the “fundamental right” to access abortion in the state.

Abortion is already legal in Minnesota, but in the aftermath of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, the Protect Reproductive Options Act goes a step further by outlining that every person has the fundamental right to make “autonomous decisions” about their own reproductive health as well as the right to refuse reproductive health care.

“This is very simple, very right to the point,” Walz said Tuesday on “CNN Tonight.” “We trust women in Minnesota, and that’s not what came out of the [Supreme Court’s] decision, so I think it’s critically important that we build a fire wall.”

With the passage of the bill, Minnesota is now the first state to codify abortion via legislative action since Roe v. Wade was reversed, the office of the bill’s lead author in Minnesota’s state Senate, told CNN.

“Last November, Minnesotans spoke loud and clear: They want their reproductive rights protected – not stripped away,” Walz said in a news release. “Today, we are delivering on our promise to put up a firewall against efforts to reverse reproductive freedom. No matter who sits on the Minnesota Supreme Court, this legislation will ensure Minnesotans have access to reproductive health care for generations to come. Here in Minnesota, your access to reproductive health care and your freedom to make your own health care decisions are preserved and protected.”

The bill states that local government cannot restrict a person’s ability to exercise the “fundamental right” to reproductive freedom. It also clarifies that this right extends to accessing contraception, sterilization, family planning, fertility services and counseling regarding reproductive health care.

“The Pro Act also goes beyond just granting those rights to abortion, it really says all reproductive healthcare decisions aren’t our business, including access to contraception, including access to really anything that is related to personal and private decisions about your reproductive life,” Megan Peterson, the executive director of pro-abortion rights campaign UnRestrict Minnesota, told CNN following Walz’s signing of the bill.

In a letter to Walz ahead of the signing, Republican legislature leaders argued that the bill went too far and urged the governor to veto what they called “an extreme law.”

“As the PRO Act was being rushed through the legislature, Republicans offered reasonable amendments with guardrails to protect women and children,” state Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson and House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth wrote, “Sadly, each of these amendments were struck down by a Democrat majority.”

In 1995, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in Doe v. Gomez that abortion was a fundamental right protected under the state’s constitution. The Protect Reproductive Options Act ensures that even in the event of a new state Supreme Court reversing the ruling, the right to abortion will be protected under state law.

“By passing this law, Minnesotans will have a second layer of protection for their existing reproductive rights. A future Minnesota Supreme Court could overturn Doe v. Gomez, but with the PRO Act now in State law, Minnesotans will still have a right to Reproductive healthcare,” Luke Bishop, a spokesperson for Democratic State Sen. Jennifer McEwen, the bill’s author in the Senate, told CNN over email.

Following the governor’s signature of the bill, the White House applauded Minnesota’s efforts, pointing to the popular support for women’s rights to make their own health care decisions.

“Americans overwhelmingly support a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, as so clearly demonstrated last fall when voters turned out to defend access to abortion – including for ballot initiatives in California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, and Vermont,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

“While Congressional Republicans continue their support for extreme policies including a national abortion ban, the President and Vice President are calling on Congress to restore the protections of Roe in federal law,” she wrote. “Until then, the Biden-Harris Administration will continue its work to protect access to abortion and support state leaders in defending women’s reproductive rights.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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Entertainment

MrBeast helps 1,000 blind people see again by sponsoring cataract surgeries

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CNN
 — 

YouTube superstar MrBeast is making the world clearer – for at least 1,000 people.

The content creator’s latest stunt is paying for cataract removal for 1,000 people who were blind or near-blind but could not afford the surgery.

“We’re curing a thousand people’s blindness,” says MrBeast – real name Jimmy Donaldson – in the Saturday video, which reached over 32 million views as of Sunday afternoon.

The video features touching before-and-after footage of patients seeing with clear vision after finishing the surgery. The YouTuber also gave cash donations and other gifts to some of the participants.

Jeff Levenson, an ophthalmologist and surgeon, worked with Donaldson to perform the first round of surgeries in Jacksonville, Florida. Levenson has coordinated the “Gift of Sight” program for over 20 years, which provides free cataract surgery for uninsured patients who are legally blind due to cataracts.

“Half of all blindness in the world is people who need a 10-minute surgery,” Levenson says in the video, referring to the cataract removal surgery.

Levenson explained to CNN he became inspired to help people access cataract surgery after undergoing his own cataract correction surgery.

“In the days and weeks after my own cataract surgery, I was stunned by how bright and beautiful and vivid the world was,” he said. “But I was shocked by the idea that there are hundreds of millions, probably 200 million people around the world, who are blind or nearly blind from cataracts and who don’t have access to the surgery.”

Levenson got a call from a member of Donaldson’s team in September. “I had never heard of MrBeast,” he said. “So I almost hung up. But I gratefully did not hang up.”

They started by calling homeless shelters and free clinics to create a list of patients in the Jacksonville area who needed cataract surgery but could not afford it. Eventually, they had a group of 40 patients – and Levenson performed all of their surgeries in a single day, starting at 7 a.m. and ending at 6 p.m.

Levenson said that patients were in “disbelief that somebody would actually seek them out to to rescue them from blindness, and then have the kindness and generosity of spirit to offer the surgery.”

The ophthalmologist also connected Donaldson’s team with SEE International, for which he serves as the chief medical officer. The nonprofit provides free eyecare around the world to patients in need. The organization helped Donaldson reach even more patients, for a total of 1,000 surgeries completed around three weeks. The video shows patients receiving the surgery in Jamaica, Honduras, Namibia, Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, Vietnam and Kenya.

Levenson said he hopes the video and Donaldson’s generosity inspire “a concerted effort to end needless blindness.”

“If MrBeast can light a fire, and if we can get governmental and private support behind it, we can end half of all the blindness in the world,” he said. “Without all that much cost, and with incredible gains in human productivity and human potential.”

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Health

Weight loss surgery extends lives, study finds

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CNN
 — 

Weight loss surgery reduces the risk of premature death, especially from such obesity-related conditions as cancer, diabetes and heart disease, according to a new 40-year study of nearly 22,000 people who had bariatric surgery in Utah.

Compared with those of similar weight, people who underwent one of four types of weight loss surgery were 16% less likely to die from any cause, the study found. The drop in deaths from diseases triggered by obesity, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, was even more dramatic.

“Deaths from cardiovascular disease decreased by 29%, while deaths from various cancers decreased by 43%, which is pretty impressive,” said lead author Ted Adams, an adjunct associate professor in nutrition and integrative physiology at the University of Utah’s School of Medicine.

“There was also a huge percentage drop — a 72% decline — in deaths related to diabetes in people who had surgery compared to those who did not,” he said. One significant downside: The study also found younger people who had the surgery were at higher risk for suicide.

The study, published Wednesday in the journal Obesity, reinforces similar findings from earlier research, including a 10-year study in Sweden that found significant reductions in premature deaths, said Dr. Eduardo Grunvald, a professor of medicine and medical director of the weight management program at the University of California San Diego Health.

The Swedish study also found a significant number of people were in remission from diabetes at both two years and 10 years after surgery.

“This new research from Utah is more evidence that people who undergo these procedures have positive, beneficial long-term outcomes,” said Grunvald, who coauthored the American Gastroenterological Association’s new guidelines on obesity treatment.

The association strongly recommends patients with obesity use recently approved weight loss medications or surgery paired with lifestyle changes.

“And the key for patients is to know that changing your diet becomes more natural, more easy to do after you have bariatric surgery or take the new weight loss medications,” said Grunvald, who was not involved in the Utah study.

“While we don’t yet fully understand why, these interventions actually change the chemistry in your brain, making it much easier to change your diet afterwards.”

Despite the benefits though, only 2% of patients who are eligible for bariatric surgery ever get it, often due to the stigma about obesity, said Dr. Caroline Apovian, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and codirector of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Apovian was the lead author for the Endocrine Society’s clinical practice guidelines for the pharmacological management of obesity.

Insurance carriers typically cover the cost of surgery for people over 18 with a body mass index of 40 or higher, or a BMI of 35 if the patient also has a related condition such as diabetes or high blood pressure, she said.

“I see patients with a BMI of 50, and invariably I will say, ‘You’re a candidate for everything — medication, diet, exercise and surgery.’ And many tell me, ‘Don’t talk to me about surgery. I don’t want it.’ They don’t want a surgical solution to what society has told them is a failure of willpower,” she said.

“We don’t torture people who have heart disease: ‘Oh, it’s because you ate all that fast food.’ We don’t torture people with diabetes: ‘Oh, it’s because you ate all that cake.’ We tell them they have a disease, and we treat it. Obesity is a disease, too, yet we torture people with obesity by telling them it’s their fault.”

Most of the people who choose bariatric surgery — around 80% — are women, Adams said. One of the strengths of the new study, he said, was the inclusion of men who had undergone the procedure.

“For all-causes of death, the mortality was reduced by 14% for females and by 21% for males,” Adams said. In addition, deaths from related causes, such as heart attack, cancer and diabetes, was 24% lower for females and 22% lower for males who underwent surgery compared with those who did not, he said.

Four types of surgery performed between 1982 and 2018 were examined in the study: gastric bypass, gastric banding, gastric sleeve and duodenal switch.

Gastric bypass, developed in the late 1960s, creates a small pouch near the top of the stomach. A part of the small intestine is brought up and attached to that point, bypassing most of the stomach and the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine.

In gastric banding, an elastic band that can be tightened or loosened is placed around the top portion of the stomach, thus restricting the volume of food entering the stomach cavity. Because gastric banding is not as successful in creating long-term weight loss, the procedure “is not as popular today,” Adams said.

“The gastric sleeve is a procedure where essentially about two-thirds of the stomach is removed laparoscopically,” he said. “It takes less time to perform, and food still passes through the much-smaller stomach. It’s become a very popular option.”

The duodenal switch is typically reserved for patients who have a high BMI, Adams added. It’s a complicated procedure that combines a sleeve gastrectomy with an intestinal bypass, and is effective for type 2 diabetes, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

One alarming finding of the new study was a 2.4% increase in deaths by suicide, primarily among people who had bariatric surgery between the ages of 18 and 34.

“That’s because they are told that life is going to be great after surgery or medication,” said Joann Hendelman, clinical director of the National Alliance for Eating Disorders, a nonprofit advocacy group.

“All you have to do is lose weight, and people are going to want to hang out with you, people will want to be your friend, and your anxiety and depression are going to be gone,” she said. “But that’s not reality.”

In addition, there are postoperative risks and side effects associated with bariatric surgery, such as nausea, vomiting, alcoholism, a potential failure to lose weight or even weight gain, said Susan Vibbert, an advocate at Project HEAL, which provides help for people struggling with eating disorders.

“How are we defining health in these scenarios? And is there another intervention — a weight neutral intervention?” Vibbert asked.

Past research has also shown an association between suicide risk and bariatric surgery, Grunvald said, but studies on the topic are not always able to determine a patient’s mental history.

“Did the person opt for surgery because they had some unrealistic expectations or underlying psychological disorders that were not resolved after the surgery? Or is this a direct effect somehow of bariatric surgery? We can’t answer that for sure,” he said.

Intensive presurgery counseling is typically required for all who undergo the procedure, but it may not be enough, Apovian said. She lost her first bariatric surgery patient to suicide.

“She was older, in her 40s. She had surgery and lost 150 pounds. And then she put herself in front of a bus and died because she had underlying bipolar disorder she had been self-medicating with food,” Apovian said. “We as a society use a lot of food to hide trauma. What we need in this country is more psychological counseling for everybody, not just for people who undergo bariatric surgery.”

Managing weight is a unique process for each person, a mixture of genetics, culture, environment, social stigma and personal health, experts say. There is no one solution for all.

“First, we as a society must consider obesity as a disease, as a biological problem, not as a moral failing,” Grunvald said. “That’s my first piece of advice.

“And if you believe your life is going to benefit from treatment, then consider evidence-based treatment, which studies show are surgery or medications, if you haven’t been able to successfully do it with lifestyle changes alone.”

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US

Tyre Nichols had ‘extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating,’ according to preliminary autopsy commissioned by family

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CNN
 — 

Tyre Nichols, the Black man who died two weeks ago after a confrontation with Memphis Police, suffered “extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating,” according to preliminary results of an autopsy commissioned by attorneys for his family.

“We can state that preliminary findings indicate Tyre suffered extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating, and that his observed injuries are consistent with what the family and attorneys witnessed on the video of his fatal encounter with police on January 7, 2023,” attorney Benjamin Crump said in a statement.

CNN has asked Crump for a copy of the autopsy commissioned by the family, but he said the full report is not yet ready. Officials have also not released Nichols’ autopsy.

Nichols, 29, was pulled over by Memphis officers on January 7 for alleged reckless driving, according to a police statement.

As officers approached the vehicle, a “confrontation” occurred and Nichols fled on foot, police said. The officers pursued him and they had another “confrontation” before he was taken into custody, police said. Nichols then complained of shortness of breath, was taken to a local hospital in critical condition and died three days later, police said.

Authorities have not publicly released video of the arrest. However, family attorneys who watched it on Monday described it as a heinous police beating that lasted three long minutes. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said Nichols was tased, pepper-sprayed and restrained and compared it to the Los Angeles Police beating of Rodney King in 1991.

The Memphis Police Department has fired five officers, all of whom are Black, for violating policies on excessive use of force, duty to intervene and duty to render aid, the department said.

“The egregious nature of this incident is not a reflection of the good work that our officers perform, with integrity, every day,” Chief Cerelyn Davis said at the time.

In addition, two members of the city’s fire department were fired. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced an investigation into Nichols’ death and the US Department of Justice and FBI have opened a civil rights investigation.

The US Attorney overseeing the federal civil rights investigation said Wednesday he had met with Nichols’ family earlier this week and pledged his investigation into the case will be “thorough” and “methodical.”

“Our federal investigation may take some time, as these things often do, but we will be diligent and make decisions based on the facts and the law,” said Kevin Ritz, US Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee.

Nichols had worked with his father at FedEx for about nine months, his family said. He was fond of Starbucks, skateboarding in Shelby Farms Park and photographing sunsets, and he had his mother’s name tattooed on his arm. He also had Crohn’s disease, a digestive issue, and so was a slim 140 to 145 pounds despite his six-foot-three-inch height, his mother said.

The January 10 death of Nichols follows a number of recent, high-profile cases involving police using excessive force toward members of the public, particularly young Black men. Crump has previously represented the families of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Breonna Taylor.

Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights figure and president of the National Action Network (NAN), said in a statement he will deliver the eulogy for Nichols at his funeral in Memphis next week.

The family and attorneys viewed footage of the incident on Monday and said they were disturbed by what it showed.

“He was defenseless the entire time. He was a human piñata for those police officers. It was an unadulterated, unabashed, nonstop beating of this young boy for three minutes. That is what we saw in that video,” attorney Antonio Romanucci said. “Not only was it violent, it was savage.”

“What I saw on the video today was horrific,” Rodney Wells, Nichols’ stepfather, said Monday. “No father, mother should have to witness what I saw today.”

Crump described the video as “appalling,” “deplorable” and “heinous.” He said Ravaughn Wells, Nichols’ mother, was unable to get through viewing the first minute of the footage after hearing Nichols ask, “What did I do?” At the end of the footage, Nichols can be heard calling for his mother three times, the attorney said.

Nichols fled from the police, his stepfather said, because he was afraid.

“Our son ran because he was scared for his life,” Wells said Monday. “He did not run because he was trying to get rid of no drugs, no guns, no any of that. He ran because he was scared for his life. And when you see the video, you will see why he was scared for his life.”

Video of the incident could be released this week or next week, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy told CNN’s Laura Coates on Tuesday night, but he wants to make sure his office has interviewed everyone involved before releasing the video so it doesn’t have an impact on their statements.

“A lot of the people’s questions about what exactly happened will, of course, be answered once people see the video,” Mulroy said, noting he believes the city will release enough footage to show the “entirety of the incident, from the very beginning to the very end.”

Prosecutors are trying to expedite the investigation and may be able to make a determination on possible charges “around the same time frame in which we contemplate release of the video,” Mulroy said.

The Memphis Police Department identified the officers terminated as Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr., and Justin Smith.

The fire department employees who were fired were part of Nichols’ “initial patient care,” and were relieved of duty “while an internal investigation is being conducted,” department Public Information Officer Qwanesha Ward told CNN’s Nadia Romero.

Asked Tuesday what those Fire Department employees did or didn’t do, Romanucci told CNN there were “limitations” on how much he could say.

“During a period of time before the EMS services arrived on scene, Fire is on scene. And they are there with Tyre and the police officers prior to EMS arriving,” he said.

The Memphis Police Association, the union representing the officers, declined to comment on the terminations beyond saying that the city of Memphis and Nichols’ family “deserve to know the complete account of the events leading up to his death and what may have contributed to it.”

One of the five officers terminated after Nichols’ death was a defendant in a civil federal lawsuit in 2016 in which a Shelby County Correctional Center inmate claimed to have been beaten and had his civil rights violated. The lawsuit was later dismissed.

Demetrius Haley, who was a correctional officer at the time, was one of three Shelby County correctional officers accused by the plaintiff of bringing them to a restroom to be searched. The lawsuit, which was filed when the plaintiff was an inmate, alleges the officers accused the inmate of trying to flush contraband.

According to the complaint, “Haley and McClain hit (the plaintiff) in the face with punches.” It goes on to say the plaintiff was picked up and slammed face first into a sink by a third correctional officer, then thrown to the floor, after which they allege they “blacked out” and woke up in a medical unit.

CNN has reached out to the attorneys who represented Haley in the lawsuit. CNN has also reached out to the Shelby County Correctional Center for comment on Haley’s previous position.

According to court documents, Haley filed an answer to the complaint requesting that it be dismissed. The document does say Haley and another correctional officer did search the inmate after they “observed smoke” and assert the inmate did try to flush contraband down a toilet, but Haley denied the other claims.

Haley and another defendant later filed a motion asking the judge to dismiss the case because the plaintiff had not exhausted his administrative remedies. That motion was granted and the case was dismissed in 2018.

Haley was hired by the Memphis Police Department in August 2020, police said.



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Health

Some people may be able to stretch out the time between colonoscopies, study suggests

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CNN
 — 

A new study raises the question whether some people can wait longer than the recommended 10years to repeat a colonoscopy after a negative initial screening for colorectal cancer.

The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, looked at 120,000 people 65 and older in Germany from 2013 to 2019 who had a colonoscopy 10 or more years after an initial negative screening, and it compared them with all colonoscopy screenings conducted on people 65 or older in that time period – most of whom were being screened for the first time.

It found the presence of precancerous or cancerous growths was 40% to 50% lower among the repeat screeners, finding advanced growths or cancers in only 4% to 5% of women and 5% to 7% of men 10 or more years after a negative colonoscopy.

The researchers also evaluated whether the number of abnormal growths differed between men and women, finding the prevalence 40% higher in men.

When looking by age, detection rates were highest among individuals 75 years or older.

The authors conclude that the current 10-year screening intervals for colonoscopies are safe, and they also suggest that extending the intervals may be warranted in some instances, especially for females and younger people without gastrointestinal symptoms.

“For instance, women at younger screening ages with no finding at index colonoscopy could possibly be screened at prolonged intervals or, alternatively, be offered less invasive methods, such as stool tests, while maintaining the 10-year interval for men and women at older ages,” the study authors wrote.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. It is also one of the most preventable cancers with effective screening tests like colonoscopies that can detect early disease.

Death rates from colorectal cancer have decreased over recent decades, largely due to colonoscopies.

Current guidelines recommend screening for colorectal cancer in all adults 45 to 75 years old. The recommendations were recently changed to start screening at 45 instead of 50 years of age in response to more cancer being diagnosed at younger ages. If the screening is negative, patients don’t need another one for 10 years.

Dr. Douglas Owens, a health policy professor at Stanford University and a former chair of the US Preventive Services Task Force, which makes US cancer screening recommendations, said there is promise to the findings.

“(Colorectal cancer) is not like other cancers where there are big harms from over screening potentially. Here they are small, but they’re not zero, and it comes from the colonoscopy. So, if you could get the same benefit at a lower number of colonoscopies, that would be a win,” Owens said.

Owens would like to see more research on extending the screening intervals, as would Dr. Robert Bresalier, a professor of gastrointestinal oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

“There’s good evidence that screening colonoscopy in asymptomatic individuals at 10-year intervals is effective and cost effective. And I think I’m not ready to change. I would not be ready to change practice in terms of extending the interval based on the study, but it is comforting and provides additional data to strengthen the concept of adhering to these guidelines,” Bresalier said. “The overall message from this study is we can feel comfortable with the current guidelines.”

The study authors note the study’s finding don’t extend to individuals who might need to undergo a colonoscopy at earlier intervals to assess symptoms they might be having, such as rectal bleeding, or individuals who are at higher risk of colorectal cancer. They say generalizing their findings should be done cautiously.

Experts maintain that colonoscopies are one of the most important preventive services and for all eligible groups to get tested.

“(This study) supports the importance of screening for colon cancer and that there are many ways, many effective ways to do that,” Owens said.

Although colonoscopy is considered the gold standard for colon cancer screening, there are alternatives. Other screening options include annual fecal occult blood tests which look for blood in the stool.

“The main thing is to get screened. It doesn’t matter if you use a stool test or you get a colonoscopy, pick one. Pick whichever one suits your preferences, but do it,” Owens said.

More than a quarter of eligible Americans don’t get screened for colorectal cancer, and public health advocates urge Americans to get screened.

“Right now, the biggest impact we can have – and relevant to this discussion — is screening. So if you haven’t been screened and you’re in that age relevant group, you should get screened. And that clearly has a larger impact, and the biggest impact we can do right now in terms of influencing death of colorectal cancer,” Bresalier said.

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US

Women living in states with abortion bans suffer greater economic insecurity

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New York
CNN
 — 

Women living in states that restrict or ban abortion face greater economic insecurity than those living in states where they have access, new research finds.

Since the nearly seven months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, half of all states – 26 in total – have implemented new abortion restrictions or all-out bans.

In nearly all 26 states, there are lower minimum wages, unionization levels, access to Medicaid and unemployment benefits, as well as higher rates of incarceration than states with more lenient abortion policies, according to new research by the Economic Policy Institute.

“These economic policies all compound on each other. And you add to that an abortion ban, it just compounds this financial stress, this economic insecurity,” said Asha Banerjee, an economic analyst with the institute and the author of the report.

Last year, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made a similar argument to the Financial Oversight Council.

“I believe that eliminating the right of women to make decisions about when and whether to have children would have very damaging effects on the economy and would set women back decades,” Yellen told lawmakers in May.

The lack of abortion access has the greatest economic impact on women of color, especially those already in dire financial conditions, according to Banerjee.

“In many of these states, especially the states which have banned abortion, many of the women who are facing economic challenges already are also women of color,” she said.

Raising the minimum wage is a powerful tool that has been known to have significant impact on closing racial income gaps. But nearly two-thirds of abortion restrictive states have a $7.25 minimum wage, the lowest legal hourly wage for most workers in the United States.

The average minimum wage across the 26 states is $8.17, lower than the average $11.92 for states with no restrictions. (Many of those states also have a higher cost of living, however.)

“If the person denied an abortion is also working a minimum wage job, the negative economic effect is compounded,” the report states.

Many of those low-wage jobs also do not offer benefits like health care, which is why access to Medicaid is critical.

“Medicaid is a lifeline for low-income families and low-income women when jobs might not offer adequate healthcare. Medicaid in the immediate postpartum period is especially important,” said Banerjee.

Just 12 states have not expanded Medicaid benefits since the 2010 Obamacare law, and all of them have restrictive abortion policies.

However, some states with total abortion bans, with few exceptions, have expanded Medicaid, including Missouri. And in five other abortion restrictive states (Idaho, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and South Dakota later this year) residents voted to expand the benefit.

Access to unemployment insurance is another key indicator of a state’s commitment to economic support for residents. Forty-two percent of residents have access to unemployment benefits in states that have abortion protections. Compare that to 30% in states with abortion restrictions.

Even if unemployment is accessible, the amount differs from state to state. For example, in Mississippi, a state with a total abortion ban with limited exceptions, weekly unemployment checks average $217. Meanwhile in Massachusetts, which has a more protective 24-week abortion ban – checks average $556 weekly.

“When you have unemployment insurance it helps create financial stability. These states which have abortion bans also have really terrible unemployment insurance systems with really low benefits which do not help one support oneself,” said Banerjee.

Although women make up a smaller percentage of those incarcerated than men, it is the economic category with the greatest difference between abortion protected and abortion-restricted states. The rate of incarceration in states with restrictive or total bans on abortion is more than one and a half times higher than the rate of incarceration for states with abortion protections.

“It’s very much a racial justice issue because Black and Hispanic women are very disproportionately incarcerated. And that has huge economic impacts on future earnings and the ability to get a job,” said Banerjee.

In some states with abortion restrictions and higher rates of incarceration – legislation has suggested also criminalizing women, doctors or anyone aiding a woman in seeking an abortion.

“The incarceration argument is especially important because in these states where abortion bans have come into play, there’s a huge criminalization aspect,” said Banerjee.

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Health

When young children test positive for Covid-19 and another respiratory virus, their illness is much more severe, a new study suggests

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CNN
 — 

When Covid-19 patients younger than 5 also test positive for another respiratory virus, they tend to become sicker and develop more severe disease, a new study suggests.

Among hospitalized children younger than 5, testing positive for both Covid-19 and another respiratory virus at the same time is associated with about twice the odds of severe respiratory illness than those who tested negative for other viruses, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Pediatrics.

The study comes amid a harsh season of respiratory viruses, including RSV, flu, Covid-19 and other viruses that overwhelmed children’s hospitals. The findings demonstrate the impact respiratory viruses have on pediatric hospitals and how “continued surveillance” of circulating Covid-19 and other illnesses can help predict future surges in hospitalizations, wrote the researchers, from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and various universities and health departments across the United States.

Caring for young children with overlapping respiratory illnesses was something Jenevieve Silva has experienced firsthand throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The height of the illnesses was from September through mid-November, when our household just could not catch a break,” she said.

The mother of eight, based in San Jose, California, said that her toddler-age twin boys “have been battered by viruses” since they started preschool in May 2021.

Last October, Silva’s twins tested positive for Covid-19 and then developed what their pediatrician suspected was another respiratory viral infection, possibly respiratory syncytial virus or RSV, around the same time.

“Based on what the pediatrician told us, she said ‘I highly believe that they had these overlapping viruses,’” Silva said, adding that the boys’ symptoms included shortness of breath, cough, fatigue, and fever, with one twin having a 105-degree fever for four days straight.

Warm baths and massaging Vicks VapoRub onto their backs and chest helped ease their pain, but watching her boys battle these respiratory illnesses was “brutal,” Silva said.

“They had just looked so frail – they looked sick, like something deeper than just back-to-back viruses,” she said. “It was hell. I mean, it was really bad.”

The boys have recovered and are currently “doing great” and have gained healthy weight, Silva said, but she worries that they developed asthma following their illnesses.

Ever since October, when they had the overlapping viruses, “the doctor has now said it seems like that might have triggered asthma in them. And so now, ever since then, when they get a cold, they have asthma symptoms – violent episodes of coughing, sometimes throwing up,” Silva said.

“I can’t be the only mom dealing with virus after virus,” she said, adding that for other parents out there, she has a message of hope: “Be patient. Listen to your doctor.”

The new study included data on 4,372 children who were hospitalized with Covid-19. Among those who were tested for other respiratory viruses, 21% had a codetection, meaning another respiratory virus was also detected in their test results. The data came from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Covid-19 hospitalization surveillance network called COVID-NET, with data from across 14 states.

The researchers noted that they focused on codetection, not coinfection, since testing wouldn’t necessarily show that a child was actively infected with both viruses just because they test positive.

Overall, “this study found that respiratory virus codetections were rare in the first year of the pandemic, RSV and rhinovirus or enterovirus codetections increased during the Delta-predominant period and influenza codetections were infrequent throughout the first 2 years of the pandemic,” the researchers wrote in their study.

The data also showed that children with codetections were more likely to be younger than 5, receive increased oxygen support, and be admitted to the intensive care unit. No significant associations were seen among children 5 and older.

Specifically for children younger than 2, testing positive for respiratory syncytial virus or RSV while having Covid-19 was significantly associated with severe illness.

More research is needed on the precise impact that two respiratory viruses can simultaneously have on the body, said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, who was not involved in the new study.

“But we do think that being attacked by two viruses, particularly if you are less than five years of age, it’s been clearly demonstrated by this study, it does tend to make your illness more severe, more likely to be prolonged in the hospital, more likely to be in the pediatric intensive care unit,” Schaffner said. “And so clearly, having your lungs and your throat and your body – generally your immune system – attacked by two viruses simultaneously, understandably might make some young children more severely ill.”

Dr. Asuncion Mejias, associate professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, said hospitalized children she has treated for Covid-19 and codetections of other respiratory viruses often require increased oxygen support and treatment in the intensive care unit.

“Covid is a very proinflammatory virus, so it really weakens your immune response,” said Mejias. “And when you haven’t recovered yet, and you get a second hit, in this case, RSV or rhinovirus, you develop a more severe disease.”

Overall, Schaffner said that these new study findings are more reason why it remains important to make sure children are up to date on their Covid-19 vaccinations as well as vaccinated against the flu.

Mejias agreed, emphasizing the importance of safe practices to prevent the spread of viruses to children too young to be vaccinated.

“The pandemic taught us how contagious these viruses are,” Mejias said about respiratory pathogens.

“If somebody is sick, try to avoid contact,” she said. “These viruses are not only transmitted by saliva and secretions but by hands. It can survive in your hands for more than 30 minutes. So if you touch your mouth and then touch a little baby, the baby can self inoculate the virus and become infected. So washing hands and all these measures are very important.”

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Sports

Damar Hamlin could be released from a Buffalo hospital in the next day or two

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CNN
 — 

A week after suffering a cardiac arrest while playing the Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin appears to be healthy enough to be released from a Buffalo hospital within 24 to 48 hours, Michael Hughes, senior vice president and chief administrative officer at Kaleida Health, told CNN on Tuesday.

Doctors are finishing tests on Hamlin and are optimistic they will be able to determine whether there were any pre-existing conditions that played a role in Hamlin’s cardiac arrest January 2. The hospital plans to release a written health update on Tuesday.

If doctors’ early findings hold true, Hughes said the injury was strictly caused by blunt force trauma.

Hamlin was transferred from a Cincinnati hospital to the Buffalo hospital on Monday after doctors determined his critical condition had improved to good or fair – surpassing expectations.

“We felt that it was safe and proper to help get him back to the greater Buffalo area,” Dr. Timothy Pritts, chief of surgery at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, said Monday.

Hamlin’s parents flew from Cincinnati back home to Pittsburgh but then flew to Buffalo. They were en route Tuesday from the Buffalo Bills’ practice facility and were expected to arrive at the hospital to see Hamlin soon.

Hamlin, a second-year NFL player, has been regaining strength over the past several days after his sudden collapse after a tackle against the Bengals in Cincinnati.

“He’s certainly on what we consider a very normal to even accelerated trajectory from the life-threatening event that he underwent,” Pritts said, “but he’s making great progress.”

Normal recovery from a cardiac arrest can be measured in weeks to months, Pritts explained. But Hamlin has been beating that timeline at each stage and is neurologically intact.

Still, Pritts said it’s too early to say when Hamlin could get back to normal life or what caused his heart to stop, saying more testing is needed.

Hamlin was sedated and on a ventilator for days after his cardiac arrest. On Friday morning, the breathing tube was removed, and Hamlin began walking with some help by that afternoon, his doctors said Monday.

The safety’s condition was upgraded Monday because his organ systems were stable and he no longer needed intensive nursing or respiratory therapy, doctors said.

“He walks normally,” said Dr. William Knight, a neurovascular critical care expert who treated Hamlin at UC Health. “He is admittedly a little weak. I don’t think that’s of any real surprise after what he went through, just regaining his strength. And that’s part of his recovery process.”

Hamlin’s release Monday meant he could return to Buffalo, which prompted even more encouragement and eagerness for some of his teammates to see him again.

“Super excited that he’s back in Buffalo and what a job that the team of docs and the medical team did out in Cincinnati, and now he’s in great care here in Buffalo. We’re happy to have him back,” Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott told reporters Monday.

After seeing him Monday, McDermott said Hamlin was “tired” but seemed happy. “Happy to be back in Buffalo and around a familiar area to him. I know he’s taking it just one step at a time.”

The coach also said his team has grown since Hamlin was injured, saying such experiences nurture growth.

“We will all have grown as people, and as men in this case,” McDermott said, noting there’s a plan in place for the players and staff to visit Hamlin “at the proper time.”

“Having him nearby will give us more comfort” and inspire the team as it prepares for the postseason, McDermott said.

Although Hamlin was not with the team when they played Sunday against the New England Patriots, his support was definitely felt.

When his team scored a touchdown, Hamlin set off alarms in the ICU, Pritts said.

“When the opening kickoff was run back, he jumped up and down and got out of his chair and set – I think – every alarm off in the ICU in the process, but he was fine, it was just an appropriate reaction to a very exciting play. He very much enjoyed it,” Pritts said.

Hamlin was “beyond excited” Sunday and felt “very supported by the outpouring of love from across the league, especially from the Buffalo area. We’ve learned this week that the Bills mafia is a very real thing,” Pritts added.

The immediate medical response to Hamlin’s collapse helped save his life, and the Buffalo Bills are now encouraging people to learn how to administer CPR.

Assistant athletic trainer Denny Kellington is credited with performing CPR when Hamlin lost his pulse on the field and needed to be revived through resuscitation and defibrillation.

The medical response was part of an emergency action plan that “involves team, independent medical and athletic training staff, equipment and security personnel, and is reviewed prior to every game,” a Monday statement from the Bills read.

The team pledged support for resources including CPR certifications, automated external defibrillator units and guidance developing cardiac emergency response plans within the Buffalo community, according to the statement.

“We encourage all our fans to continue showing your support and take the next step by obtaining CPR certification,” the Bills said.



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Health

Updated childhood obesity treatment guidelines include medications, surgery for some young people

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CNN
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Updated American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines for treatment of obesity urge prompt use of behavior therapy and lifestyle changes, and say surgery and medications should be used for some young people.

The guidelines, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, are the first comprehensive update to the academy’s obesity treatment guidelines in 15 years. They provide guidance for treatment of children as young as 2 and through the teen years.

The guidelines acknowledge that obesity is complex, and tied to access to nutritious foods and health care, among other factors.

Treatment for younger children should focus on behavior and lifestyle treatment for the entire family, including nutrition support and increased physical activity. For children 12 and older, use of weight loss medications is appropriate, in addition to health behavior therapy and lifestyle treatment, AAP says. Teens 13 and older with severe obesity should be evaluated for surgery, according to the guidelines.

“There is no evidence that ‘watchful waiting’ or delayed treatment is appropriate for children with obesity,” Dr. Sandra Hassink, an author of the guideline and vice chair of AAP’s Clinical Practice Guideline Subcommittee on Obesity, said in a statement. “The goal is to help patients make changes in lifestyle, behaviors or environment in a way that is sustainable and involves families in decision-making at every step of the way.”

For children and teens, overweight is defined as a body mass index at or above the 85th percentile and below the 95th percentile; obesity is defined as a BMI at or above the 95th percentile.

Myles Faith, a psychologist at the State University of New York at Buffalo who studies childhood eating behaviors and obesity, praised the new report both for acknowledging that the causes of childhood obesity are complex and that its treatments must be a team effort.

“It’s not one cause for all kids,” he says. “There’s not been this kind of report to say that there are more options and that we shouldn’t automatically discount the possibility of medication, that we shouldn’t discount the role of surgery. For some families, it might be something to consider,” said Faith, who was not involved in the creation of the guidelines.

The new guidelines do not discuss obesity prevention; it will be addressed in another AAP policy statement to come, it says.

“These are the most comprehensive, patient-centered guidelines we have had that address overweight and obesity within childhood,” Dr. Rebecca Carter, pediatrician at the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital and assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said in an email Monday.

“New to these recommendations are several new medication management strategies that have proven very successful in the treatment of obesity as a chronic disease for adults, and are now being recommended for use in children and adolescents,” Carter said. “This is a major step in allowing overweight and obesity to be considered as the chronic diseases that they are.”

She added that the recommendations also are a “major step forward” in helping both parents and medical teams “take ownership” over a child’s long-term health risks related to overweight and obesity.

“They give a variety of tools to help families feel empowered that there are ways to treat these medical conditions, and that there are nuanced causes for these conditions that go beyond easy solutions and certainly take our focus away from outdated or unhealthy dieting strategies,” Carter said.

The new guidelines are designed for health care providers, but Carter said parents should talk with their children’s doctor if there are concerns about weight, and discuss strategies to optimize health and monitor changes.

“It is also appropriate to do this in a child-focused manner, taking care not to stigmatize them or make them feel bad about their body, while empowering the child to feel they have the tools needed to keep their body healthy over time.”

The new guidelines are a “much-needed advancement” to align holistic care with current science, Dr. Jennifer Woo Baidal, assistant professor of pediatrics and director of the Pediatric Obesity Initiative at Columbia University in New York City, said in a separate email Monday.

“Uptake of the new guidelines will help reverse the epidemic of childhood obesity,” she said. “More work at policy levels will be needed to mitigate policies and practices that propagate racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in obesity starting in early life. Although the guidelines support advocacy efforts of pediatricians, we as a society need to voice our support for healthful environments for the nation’s children.”

AAP says more than 14.4 million children and teens live with obesity. Children with overweight or obesity are at higher risk for asthma, sleep apnea, bone and joint problems, type 2 diabetes and heart disease, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Separate research, published last month in the American Diabetes Association journal Diabetes Care, suggests that the number of young people under age 20 with type 2 diabetes in the United States may increase nearly 675% by 2060 if current trends continue.

Last month, the CDC released updated growth charts that can be used to track children and teens with severe obesity.

Growth charts are standardized tools used by health care providers to track growth from infancy through adolescence. But as obesity and severe obesity became more prevalent in the last 40 years – more than 4.5 million children and teens had severe obesity in 2017-2018, the agency says – the charts hadn’t kept up.

The growth chart in use since 2000 is based on data from 1963 to 1980 and did not extend beyond the 97th percentile, the agency said. The newly extended percentiles incorporate more recent data and provide a way to monitor and visualize very high body mass index values.

The existing growth charts for children and adolescents without obesity will not change, the CDC said, while the extended growth chart will be useful for health care providers treating patients with severe childhood obesity.

“Prior to today’s release, the growth charts did not extend high enough to plot BMI for the increasing number of children with severe obesity. The new growth charts coupled with high-quality treatment can help optimize care for children with severe obesity,” Dr. Karen Hacker, director CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, said in a statement. “Providers can work with families on a comprehensive care plan to address childhood obesity.

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US

Idaho murders: Suspect in student killings was seen multiple times wearing gloves, also placing garbage bags outside Pennsylvania home, source says

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CNN
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The man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in November had thoroughly cleaned the interior and exterior of his car and was also seen wearing surgical gloves multiple times before being apprehended, a law enforcement source tells CNN.

Bryan Kohberger, 28, is currently the sole suspect in the gruesome stabbings of students Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, who were found dead inside their off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13.

Kohberger, who was pursuing a PhD in criminal justice at Washington State University at the time of the killings, “cleaned his car, inside and outside, not missing an inch,” according to the law enforcement source.

The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, was briefed on observations made by investigators during four days of surveillance leading up to Kohberger’s arrest at his family’s Pennsylvania home on December 30.

As Kohberger now remains behind bars in Idaho awaiting his January 12 status hearing, new details have emerged elucidating some of the suspect’s movements in the days leading up to his arrest.

A surveillance team assigned to Kohberger was tasked with two missions, according to multiple law enforcement sources: keep eyes on Kohberger so they could arrest him as soon as a warrant was issued, and try to obtain an object that would yield a DNA sample from Kohberger, which could then be compared to DNA evidence found at the crime scene.

Kohberger was seen multiple times outside the Pennsylvania home wearing surgical gloves, according to the law enforcement source.

In one instance prior to Kohberger’s arrest, authorities observed him leaving his family home around 4 a.m. and putting trash bags in the neighbors’ garbage bins, according to the source. At that point, agents recovered garbage from the Kohberger family’s trash bins and what was observed being placed into the neighbors’ bins, the source said.

The recovered items were sent to the Idaho State Lab, per the source.

Last Friday, a Pennsylvania State Police SWAT team then moved in on the Kohberger family home, breaking down the door and windows in what is known as a “dynamic entry” – a tactic used in rare cases to arrest “high risk” suspects, the source added.

On Thursday, Kohberger had his initial court appearance in Idaho after he was booked into the Latah County jail Wednesday night following his extradition from Pennsylvania.

Kohberger is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. He did not enter a plea at the hearing.

Authorities spent nearly two months investigating before they were able to name publicly a suspect, a task that grabbed national attention and rattled the victims’ loved ones as well as the community – which had not recorded a murder in years.

Still, the public’s view of the case remains mired with questions. As of late Thursday, it remains unclear what motivated the killings. It’s also unclear how the suspect entered the house after authorities said there was no sign of forced entry or why two roommates who were inside the residence at the time of the killings survived the attacks.

Here’s how investigators narrowed the search to Kohberger:

  • DNA: Trash recovered from Kohberger’s family home revealed that the “DNA profile obtained from the trash” matched a tan leather knife sheath found “laying on the bed” of one of the victims, according to a probable cause affidavit released Thursday. The DNA recovered from the trash “identified a male as not being excluded as the biological father” of the suspect whose DNA was found on the sheath. “At least 99.9998% of the male population would be expected to be excluded from the possibility of being the suspect’s biological father,” the affidavit said.
  • Phone records: Authorities found the suspect’s phone was near the victims’ Moscow, Idaho, home at least a dozen times between June 2022 to the present day, according to the affidavit. The records also reveal Kohberger’s phone was near the crime scene hours after the murders that morning between 9:12 a.m. and 9:21 a.m, the document says. The killings were not reported to authorities until just before noon.
  • A white sedan: A Hyundai Elantra was seen near the victims’ home around the time of their killings. Officers at Washington State University identified a white Elantra and later learned it was registered to Kohberger. The same car was also found at the suspect’s Pennsylvania family home when he was arrested last Friday. The suspect’s university is about a 10-minute drive from the Idaho crime scene.

One of two roommates who were not harmed in the attacks said she saw a masked man dressed in black inside the house on the morning of the killings, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Identified as D.M. in the court document, the roommate said she “heard crying” in the house that morning and also heard a man’s voice say, ‘It’s OK, I’m going to help you.’” D.M. said she then saw a “figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her,” the affidavit continued.

“D.M. described the figure as 5’ 10” or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows,” the affidavit says. “The male walked past D.M. as she stood in a ‘frozen shock phase.’

“The male walked towards the back sliding glass door. D.M. locked herself in her room after seeing the male,” the document says, adding the roommate did not recognize the male.

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