Closer Look
Did the U.S. get a bad deal on Covid-19 boosters?
After Pfizer and Moderna hiked the prices of their Covid-19 vaccines this year, the U.S. government will now pay nearly three times more than it did previously for each dose. It's also paying more than countries that did far less to support vaccine development, my colleague Rachel Cohrs writes.
The change is partly because the federal government ran out of money to continue to buy the vaccines in bulk to distribute across the country, so the vast majority of vaccine purchases will be paid for by a variety of different insurance plans this year, including Medicare and Medicaid. The fact that the government is purchasing fewer doses gave the government significantly less leverage.
"Taxpayers and U.S. patients are getting a raw deal, again," Public Citizen Access to Medicines Director Peter Maybarduk told STAT. Read more.
mental health
Mental health worsens during menstruation — even on the pill
New research published in JAMA Network Open suggests that for those who take birth control pills, negative mental health symptoms can increase while menstruating in a similar way to those who aren't on birth control.
The research focused on combined oral contraceptives — the standard daily birth control pills that include both estrogen and progestogen. The pills for the last week of each monthly cycle are typically placebo sugar pills, to mimic the hormonal shifts of a menstrual cycle. The researchers found that out of 181 participants, those who took the pill (120 people) reported an almost 13% increase in negative affect and 7% increase in anxiety during the week of placebo pills compared to their baseline.
The changes were worse for those with higher baseline depression scores, but overall similar to the shifts experienced by those who don't take the pill. Researchers noted that the results made them question whether the week of placebo pills is worthwhile from a mental health perspective.
research
People with disabilities get new designation from NIH
It may sound like common sense, but people with disabilities are now officially a "population with health disparities" per a new designation from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Activists and disabled community members have long called for the official label, which increases research funding and resources for designated populations like racial and ethnic minorities and sexual and gender minority groups.
A recent NIH advisory council report noted that "persons living with disabilities face tremendous health disparities that impact quality of life, morbidity, and mortality, as well as discrimination, based on their abilities and identity." One in four people in the U.S. live with disabilities, according to the NIH, and that number is expected to increase as chronic medical conditions increase and the population ages.
Agency leaders concurrently announced funding opportunities for research aimed at addressing disparities around disability and its intersections with other factors, like race and socioeconomic status, that compound issues with access to health care and health disparities.
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