Youth vaping rates are down, with an asterisk

A decline in vaping rates among young people looks good, but experts are treating pandemic-era numbers cautiously as they assert these lower levels are still too high. Figures released by the CDC and FDA yesterday show a little over 9% of middle and high schoolers surveyed earlier this year were currently using e-cigarettes, down from 13.1% in 2020 and 20% in 2019. But CDC warned against making a comparison to 2021 — when the vaping rate was 7.6% — because the survey methodology changed.

Both agencies call the data further evidence of unacceptably high levels of youth vaping. “This study shows that our nation’s youth continue to be enticed and hooked by an expanding variety of e-cigarette brands delivering flavored nicotine,” Deirdre Lawrence Kittner, director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, said in a statement. “Our work is far from over.” STAT’s Nicholas Florko has more.

As Ebola outbreak spreads in Uganda, U.S. will screen air travelers

The expanding Ebola outbreak in Uganda is sparking precautions in the U.S. Starting today, all travelers to the U.S. arriving from Uganda will be directed to five airports where they can be screened for possible infection: JFK, Newark, Atlanta, O’Hare, or Dulles outside Washington, D.C., according to a statement from the U.S. embassy in Uganda. The CDC also sent a health alert yesterday to providers and public health departments with recommendations for Ebola case identification and testing.

No cases have been seen in the U.S., but the advisory was sent as a precaution and to raise awareness of the outbreak. In Uganda, more than 60 confirmed and probable cases and 29 deaths, including four health workers, have been reported in two weeks. The outbreak is caused by the Ebola Sudan virus, for which there are no licensed vaccines. STAT’s Andrew Joseph has more.

Health plans fight a rule against texting patients

Among the many barriers to health care — cost, transportation, language, provider shortages — there’s one more: a rule against texting. A 1991 law designed to protect consumers from unwanted telemarketing blocks health plans from texting patients without their prior consent, STAT’s Mohana Ravindranath explains, meaning that they can’t send reminders about services like mammograms or well-child visits unless they’ve reached the patient by phone first.

It's a health equity issue, those plans argue, because the rule affects low-income and underserved patients who are more likely to see and respond to texts about their health than they are to answer calls from unknown numbers or to receive mailed notices, especially if they’re at work or move frequently. Texting could also help reach enrollees with disabilities or language or communication barriers, according to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission. Read more.

Closer look: State medical boards could block to wider telemedicine abortion

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In the post-Roe landscape, telemedicine has loomed large as a way to offer access to abortion in states that imposed limits after the Dobbs ruling. Organizations including Abortion on Demand and Hey Jane expanded their capacity to offer such services, prescribing abortion pills by mail in early pregnancy. And some states, including Massachusetts, adopted measures to protect providers of abortion care from legal penalties for giving such care via telemedicine to patients located in states where abortion is banned.

But beyond legal maneuvers from abortion opponents, there’s another barrier: state medical boards responsible for physician licensing, regulation, and discipline. Doctors who may wish to help patients obtain abortion via telemedicine have to navigate new questions of legal jeopardy along with the logistics of obtaining licenses in states with abortion restrictions, STAT contributor and Mass General Hospital gastroenterologist Trisha Pasricha explains.

Marijuana pardon and proposed schedule change could ease researchers’ access

Tucked into President Biden’s announcement yesterday that he is pardoning thousands of Americans convicted of “simple possession” of marijuana under federal law is a recommendation to change how the drug is classified — which could help research scientists. Biden has asked HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law, the Associated Press writes. Marijuana is currently a Schedule I drug, along with heroin and LSD.

Researchers conducting medical research into marijuana and related compounds have been clamoring for years to have easier access to the drugs, as STAT’s Andrew Joseph has reported. A Schedule I drug is defined as having no current medical use and a high potential for misuse, he tells me, so researchers who want to study them have to get special clearances and go through additional hurdles that studying lower-tier drugs doesn't require. The White House did not set a timeline for this review. Stay tuned.

Opinion: Beyond food-labeling anarchy, do we need 'healthy' claims on packaging?

So you may have heard the FDA wants to set up new rules for manufacturers hoping to claim a “food product” is “healthy.” The proposed rules are a lot better than the labeling anarchy that currently exists, nutrition scientist Marion Nestle writes in a STAT First Opinion. But here’s the thing, she says: This isn’t about health, but about selling products.

“Do Americans really need health claims on food products?” she asks. “You might think that any relatively unprocessed food from a plant or animal ought to qualify as healthy without needing FDA approval, and you would be right. But health claims aren’t about health. They are meant to get people to buy food products, not real foods like fruit, vegetables, grains, nuts, meat, poultry, dairy, eggs, or fish.” Read more.

What we're reading

Chemistry Nobel winner wants an overdue shake-up of her field, Bloomberg
This Covid-19 sleuth is making friends and foes advocating for African science, Science
FDA and Covis release dueling documents over the fate of a controversial drug for premature births, STAT
I was allergic to cats. Until suddenly, I wasn’t, The Atlantic
‘Patchy efforts’ by major insulin makers mean access lags in many poor countries, STAT