Health Care — Democrats Request DOJ Action On Antitrans Threats

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🦃 Today, President Biden pardoned a turkey as part of an annual Thanksgiving tradition. Chocolate and Chip will be able to live at North Carolina State University and we hope you won't hear any more jokes about them.

In health care news today, House Democrats condemned transgender threats to children's hospitals and called on the Justice Department to respond.

Welcome to the Overnight Health Care website , where we are always up to date with the latest news and regulations regarding your health. For The Hill, we're Nathaniel Wicksell and Joseph Choi. Someone sends you this newsletter.

Representatives in the House of Representatives are demanding a response to the threats of a massacre

Dozens of House Democrats are calling on the Department of Justice to stop threats of online violence against many children's hospitals across the country.

In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Democrats asked the Justice Department to describe steps the agency is taking to address threats of violence against transgender people and provide additional guidance to health care providers on how to protect their staff and patients from such threats. .

"Online messages from social media accounts spreading misinformation about transgender and non-binary people have had real consequences for healthcare providers and their patients across the country," the Democrats wrote.

The lawmakers' message comes after closing hospitals and tightening security in recent months due to threats and harassment.

• Earlier this year, a woman was accused of making a false bomb threat at Boston Children's Hospital and its staff after far-right extremists posted false allegations of child abuse on social media.
• Last week, the hospital received a third bomb report.
• Medical facilities in Philadelphia, Washington, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere across the country have reported similar threats, including threatening letters, phone calls, and protests that have raised concerns among staff, transgender patients, and their families.

More details here.

The governor has pardoned several marijuana convictions

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) announced Monday that it is pardoning past felonies for simple marijuana possession, removing more than 47,000 convictions from individual records.

In a statement, Brown said the move would affect up to 45,000 people in Oregon and eliminate $14 million in fines and taxes.

• "No one deserves to be sentenced to eternity simply for possession of marijuana, a felony that is no longer on Oregon's books," said the governor.
• He added, "Oregonians have never had to contend with housing shortages, hardship, and barriers to education to do what is now perfectly legal and has been for years."

Eligibility: Brown's pardon will apply to conviction records that are available electronically for an ounce or less of marijuana in Oregon. Eligible convictions must have occurred prior to 2016, when the person turned 21 and did not result in a death.

Brown's actions came nearly six weeks after President Biden announced he would pardon all federal felonies simply for possession of marijuana. He also pointed to the obstacles that a marijuana conviction creates in a person's life in explaining their decision.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R)'s office said he would not take "criminal justice advice " from Biden, while Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) insisted he was "not considering" pardoning marijuana possession. .

More details here.

The 2020-2021 NFL season is due to the virus outbreak. Research work

NFL games attended by fans during the 2020-21 season have been linked to an increase in COVID-19 cases in and around stadiums.

The results of the new study, published in JAMA Network Open, show that the increase was most noticeable when games with more than 20,000 people attended, while games with fewer than 5,000 fans were not associated with higher rates of sickness.

The findings suggest that "major events should be approached with extreme caution during public health events when vaccines, field trials, and various countermeasures are not available to the public," the authors write.

• A total of 269 home games were included in the analysis. The researchers measured the number of COVID-19 cases seven, 14 and 21 days after each game and compared the rates between in-person and in-person games.

• More than a million fans watched the matches. Games are over

  20,000 fans were associated with a 2.23 times higher incidence of COVID-19 than those who attended less.

More details here.

Cervical cancer is on the rise among millennial women

New data shows that incidence of cervical cancer among millennials rose 2.5% annually between 2012 and 2019, reflecting years of declining incidence in this age group.

After declining between 2001 and 2012, the incidence of cervical cancer increased to 11.60 per 100,000 women ages 30 to 34 in 2019, according to a study published in JAMA.

• "Over the past two years, we have been trying to understand why the steady decline in cervical cancer in 2012 was halted and why we had reached a critical point of no return," said Ashish Deshmukh of the Medical University of South Carolina. .
• "What's really surprising is that [millennials'] rates have increased among non-Hispanic white women, Hispanic women, and other ethnic groups, but not among non-Hispanic black women," Deshmukh added.

Between 2001 and 2019, more than 227,000 cases of cervical cancer were reported.

Most cases of cervical cancer are caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), which is the most common sexually transmitted infection.

Between 2001 and 2019, rates of cervical cancer continued to decline in younger and older age groups, and the incidence rate decreased overall. Rates remained relatively stable among women ages 35 to 54.

More details here.

1 in 7 have not discussed immunizations with their child's doctor

New research shows that some parents avoided talking about their children's vaccines altogether during the pandemic.

One in seven American parents said they haven't discussed vaccines with their pediatrician since the pandemic began, according to a new survey.

• Researchers at CS Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan surveyed 2,023 people with children between the ages of one month and 18 years between August and September of this year.
• But the report is based on responses from 1,483 parents with at least one child between the ages of 6 and 18.
• The survey found that 82% of parents have consulted a doctor about what vaccinations their children need at school.

It's not enough: And while that number means most parents talk to their healthcare provider about at least some of their children's vaccines, some experts say it's concerning.

Rupali Lemay, associate director of the Center for International Vaccine Access at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told The Hill she was surprised the number wasn't "a little bit higher."

"This is one of the things that a healthcare provider should discuss with a parent while visiting a healthy child," said LeMay, who was not involved in the development of the survey or the vaccine report.

More details here.

what do we read?

• Patient mistrust and poor access hinder federal efforts to reform Planned Parenthood. (Kaiser Health News)
• Big Pharma stops buying Twitter ads after Lilly Insulin is fake (endpoint)
• Time is running out on the congressional mental health agenda (National Journal)

state in the state

• Minnesota Health Systems 'Be Careful' About RSV (KARE)
• Mentally ill prisoners are three times more likely to commit in California (CalMatters).
• Mass colleges continue to encourage, if not demand, the latest COVID incentives as holidays approach (WBUR)

That's it for today, thanks for reading. Visit The Hill's Health Care page for the latest news and coverage. see you tomorrow.

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