Challenging ‘Doctor Knows Best’; Vax Controversy in Florida; 6-State E.Coli Outbreak

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Merope Mills, an editor for The Guardian, is aggressively fighting the “doctor knows best” mentality after her daughter’s preventable death from sepsis. (BBC)

Columbia University reached a $165 million settlement with dozens of patients who accused its former gynecologist Robert Hadden, MD, of sexual abuse. (New York Times)

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to declare lead emitted by airplanes a public health danger. (Reuters)

Pregnancy complications spiked during the pandemic, but the reason remains unclear. (Washington Post)

COVID vaccines were linked with a 34-38% drop in long COVID risk, according to a preprint study in medRxiv.

The vaccines were also associated with at least 330,000 fewer deaths among Medicare enrollees in 2021, according to a U.S. government analysis.

Meanwhile, Joe Ladapo, MD, a COVID vaccine skeptic and Florida’s Surgeon General, is recommending against mRNA vaccines in young men, citing a disputed analysis suggested higher risk for cardiac death in this group. (Forbes)

To date, only about 4% of eligible Americans have gotten the new bivalent COVID booster ahead of a predicted winter surge. (Washington Post)

Will a vaccination tent at NASCAR help? (STAT)

As of Monday at 8:00 a.m. ET, the unofficial COVID toll in the U.S. reached 96,699,253 cases and 1,062,564 deaths, increases of 301,354 cases and 2,959 deaths since this time a week ago.

The FDA granted emergency use authorization to Abbott Molecular’s real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for monkeypox, intended for use by qualified and trained clinical laboratory personnel.

Abortions can now resume in Arizona after an appeals court blocked implementation of a pre-statehood law that criminalizes nearly all of the procedures. (AP)

Major health insurers appear to have fleeced billions from the Medicare program through Medicare Advantage plans. (New York Times)

An official in one small Vermont town’s water department secretly lowered fluoride levels in the water; residents now worry for their children’s dental health. (AP via ABC News)

A Canadian family racing against time and an illness that will blind three of their four children, is traveling across Asia and Africa to take it all in. (New York Times)

The CDC and FDA are investigating an E.coli outbreak in six states that may be tied to frozen falafel sold at Aldi supermarkets.

A photographer’s 12-year project chronicles her journey through aging. (Kaiser Health News)