Good morning and welcome to Monday’s New York Health Care newsletter, where we keep you updated on what’s happening this week in health care news and offer a look back at important news from the past week.
More than 2,000 New Yorkers have contracted monkeypox in the nearly three months since Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan reported the state’s first suspected case of the rare virus in late May. New York continues to lead the nation in confirmed cases of monkeypox/orthopoxvirus, accounting for 2,295 of the 11,177 cases reported nationally to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of Friday — the majority of which, 2,130, located in New York City.
But the latest case data suggests that the New York outbreak, which saw case rates double in just a few days last month, may be slowing. New York added fewer than 400 cases to its total last week, while those reported nationwide have increased by nearly 3,700 over the same period. And California, which reported 1,310 cases on Tuesday, saw its case count rise to 1,945 by Friday.
State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett told POLITICO that while the apparently “slow rate of increase is encouraging,” cases are still on the rise. “We know there are more cases out there that we haven’t diagnosed, so I’m still concerned with the numbers going up,” she said in an interview. But, argued Bassett, “we haven’t passed the check on that.”
The commissioner said public health officials are concentrating their efforts to connect New Yorkers who may have been exposed to the virus, or who are vulnerable to exposure, with a monkeypox vaccine. The limited supply of those doses, which have been delivered in installments by the federal government, has prevented vaccinations from being offered to anyone who wants one, or who has been identified as high risk, she noted.
Bassett said state health officials are also working to ensure that the messages in the monkeys reach all New Yorkers. “We’ve launched an equity initiative that seeks to get messaging out about vaccination through trusted community partners, specifically reaching out to communities of color in the LGBTQ community,” she said.
“This is always a complex message, which is never easy in public health or in life. But there is no biological reason that skin-to-skin contact and transmission affects only men who have sex with men. So we’re going to see spread, there’s no doubt in my mind, beyond the group that was initially most affected.”
What else we’re watching this week:
— Cannabis Control Board practically meets today. The panel is scheduled to consider: emergency regulations regarding marijuana laboratories; a policy nominee director; and more than a dozen each of conditional adult-use grower and conditional adult-use processor licenses.
… The meeting is just a few days away after the Office of Cannabis Management announced that New York residents with prior marijuana-related convictions and business experience can begin applying for the first round of adult-use dispensary licenses on August 26.
– Starting today, pharmacies across New York must carry and dispense naloxone, an opioid overdose antidote, to individuals without a prescription under a new standing order from Bassett.
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POLIO IN NYC – POLITICO’s Julian Shen-Barro: Weeks after the nation’s first case of polio in nearly a decade appeared in suburban New York, public health officials warned Friday that it is likely in New York City. This is while the city is still reeling from Covid-19 and the growing monkeypox outbreak. New York tried a petri dish for both infections, and now polio, which is mostly asymptomatic but can cause paralysis, can spread silently. “For every identified case of paralytic polio, hundreds more may go undetected,” State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said in a statement. “The discovery of poliovirus in sewage samples in New York City is alarming but not surprising. Now, the State Department of Health – working with local and federal partners – is responding urgently, continuing to investigate the case and aggressively evaluating the spread.”
There are no confirmed cases in New York City. The local discovery follows a confirmed case in Rockland County and positive sewage samples in Rockland and Orange counties. Positive samples of the city’s sewage were collected in June and July, though state officials said they have not been genetically linked to the case in Rockland County.
“PEOPLE WILL DIE WAITING” — POLITICO’s Dan Goldberg: Private agencies that provide services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities have long warned that, without new state and federal funding, they would be unable to provide housing and staff support to the growing number of Americans who need them. for caution. Over the past 12 months, the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and once-in-a-generation inflation have turned dire predictions into sobering truths, and agency directors who for years scrounged on tight budgets have done in 2022 what was not long. previously it would have been unthinkable: closing their doors.
… Two decades after the Supreme Court governed states must provide care for people with disabilities in the least restrictive environment possible, home and community-based service providers are being hampered. Many states, flush with cash thanks to a saturated economy and federal stimulus, may need to act after years of underfunding that left an already fragile system on the brink of collapse.
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: This review is for you! Submit news tips, health tips, ideas, critiques and corrections [email protected].
NOW WE KNOW – Experiencing menopause early can make you more likely to develop dementia later in life.
TODAY’S TIP – Bored at work? The Wall Street Journal recommends (as part of its tips on “the right way to vent at work”) that you record your complaint in a voice memo on your phone before voicing it with colleagues. Play it to yourself and if you think it sounds “funny” delete it.
BE SURE TO FOLLOW Shannon@ShannonYoung413 on Twitter. And for all New Jersey health news, check out Daniel Hahn, @danieljhan_.
STUDY THIS – The Associated Press reports that “fewer than 1 in 3 people infected with hepatitis C are taking the expensive treatments that could cure them, according to a US government study.”
New York Times reports that the Mount Sinai Health System has begun an effort “to build a vast database of patient genetic information that can be studied by researchers — and by a big pharmaceutical company.”
The Times Union looks at how reproductive care is “eroding between Catholic-secular hospital mergers” in New York.
New data is finding racial disparities in monkeypox infections, STAT reports.
Kaiser Health News looks at how “Big Pharma moved in to kill drug price negotiations.”
“Johnson & Johnson is recalling baby powder containing talc worldwide next year … amid thousands of lawsuits alleging it caused cancer,” the Associated Press reports.
New York Times offers a glimpse into the “unfiltered faces of monkeypox.”
“The phenomenon behind the long Covid it’s not entirely new,” reports The Atlantic. “We have always lived with post-infectious diseases and underestimated their consequences.”
POLITICO’s Krista Mahr, Megan Messerly and Katherine Ellen Foley report that it may be too late to stop monkeypox from circulating in the US forever.
Thousands of long Covid patients around the globe are calling on their governments to provide more aid to the growing number of people dealing with lingering symptoms after the infection, POLITICO’s Daniel Payne reports.
POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn reports that as the Biden administration tried last month to quell anger over its slow response to the monkeypox outbreak, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra had an idea: Tell people that states need to do more.
Florida Medicaid Regulator has finalized new rules barring health care providers from billing the taxpayer-funded program for gender-affirming medical treatments, a move that comes as the state sought to block such therapies for young people, POLITICO’s Arek Sarkissian reports.
POLITICO’s Lisa Rab looks at the medical crisis that finally convinced Republicans in North Carolina to expand Medicaid
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