hospitals
You won't find what you don't look for
Hospitals face steep fines when patients acquire infections in their facilities, so some discourage testing for infections.
Tara Bannow spoke to more than 20 clinicians for this story, some of whom went on the record to describe what they see as a disturbing practice. They described a commonality in the ways hospitals discourage testing: They're almost never written down.
"This is like health care's dirty little secret," Carol McLay, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, told Tara. "Everybody knows it's done. Nobody talks about it."
Tara did a fantastic job on this one. You should read it.
vaccine advisers
ACIP recap
The health secretary's vaccine advisers provided a picture of the direction they're taking vaccine policy at their two-day meeting in Atlanta, Chelsea, Elaine Chen, and Lizzy Lawrence report.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was not presented with much new data, and at times it wasn't clear what public health problem they wanted to fix. But that didn't stop them from raising doubts about vaccine safety and effectiveness data presented by CDC experts, floating theoretical or unsupported concerns, and revisiting decades-old vaccine policy.
ACIP hit pause on changing hep B shots for newborns but changed recommendations for the MMRV vaccine for children.
The ACIP chair started the meeting by trolling former CDC heads, saying those who won't debate him should not be trusted.
Former CDC director Rochelle Walensky took up that challenge with a response to contentious points that members made about how the CDC handled Covid vaccine guidance. She lays out the evidence that Covid shots do in fact protect kids.
congress
Shutdown showdown leaves ACA tax credits in limbo
Without making predictions or giving odds of a shutdown — prognosticating is always a big mistake — I'm going to point out that Congress left for recess after each party blocked the other's bill for stopgap government funding. The Senate is scheduled to return two days before the shutdown deadline. The House, which on Friday passed the Republican version of the bill, is scheduled to return after the shutdown deadline passes.
Republicans want a "clean" continuing resolution that funds the government at current levels until Nov. 21, buying time to negotiate with Democrats over enhanced ACA premium tax credits and potentially other health care policies.
With a seeming impasse between the parties in Congress, Democrats have asked Trump to negotiate. Trump indicated he is willing to talk, but it's not clear whether that will happen or what might come of it given that Trump said he doesn't expect a breakthrough.
Read more.
doctors
H-1B visa chaos
The Trump administration announced on Friday that it would charge $100,000 for the visas used by high-skilled employees working in the United States, including many doctors.
The new fee kicked in on Sunday, and it wasn't until Saturday that the administration clarified that it would only apply to new applicants.
Doctors might be exempt, though that detail is not certain. A White House spokesperson told Bloomberg News that the policy allows for exemptions, "which can include physicians and medical residents." The question is: will they?
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