Pope’s Illness; Docs Against Trump; Another Contact of Missouri H5N1 Case Fell Ill

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The Pope canceled audiences on Monday due to flu-like illness. (AP)

FDA said that the controversial fentanyl lollipops will no longer be sold. (CBS News)

Pennsylvania-based Lehigh Valley Health Network will pay $65 million to settle charges it failed to prevent hackers from accessing sensitive patient information, including nude photos. (Washington Post)

Delaware Gov. John Carney (D) vetoed a bill that would have allowed doctor-assisted suicide. (AP)

New York State confirmed its first case of mosquito-borne eastern equine encephalitis in close to a decade. (ABC News)

Following Texas’s abortion ban, the state has seen a disproportionate spike in maternal mortality. (NBC News)

A federal judge temporarily blocked Tennessee’s “abortion trafficking” law. (AP)

Physicians are fighting against a second Trump administration, donating nearly twice as much money to campaigns for Democrats as compared to Republicans this cycle. (Politico)

A federal appeals court revived a challenge to the Biden administration’s Medicare drug price negotiation program. (AP)

In other legal news, a U.S. appeals court revived hundreds of lawsuits alleging Merck failed to warn patients about an increased risk of thigh bone fractures with alendronic acid (Fosamax) for osteoporosis. (Reuters)

Another healthcare worker who had contact with the hospitalized bird flu patient in Missouri became ill, but testing was not conducted before symptoms resolved, the CDC said.

Despite guidelines, stroke rates for patients with sickle cell disease are increasing, a cohort study from California suggested. (Blood)

Rates of pregnancy-related hypertension are on the rise, and may be contributing to climbing overall maternal mortality. (NPR)

Women in severe pain are often dismissed. (The Hill)

The FDA approved isatuximab (Sarclisa) with bortezomib (Velcade), lenalidomide (Revlimid), and dexamethasone for newly diagnosed transplant-ineligible multiple myeloma.

And the agency expanded the approval of bimekizumab (Bimzelx) to include psoriatic arthritis, non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis, UCB Announced.

Meanwhile, the FDA designated the recall of Smiths Medical ventilators due to loosened or detached patient outlet connector as class I, its most serious type; the issue has been linked to one death.

And Dynarex baby powder in at least 11 states is being recalled for potential asbestos contamination, according to the FDA.

American women are increasingly embracing breast reduction surgery. (New York Times)

John Clements, MD, whose breakthrough discovery of pulmonary surfactant’s role in infant deaths from respiratory distress syndrome helped save thousands of lives, died at age 101. (Washington Post)

The Navy said its highest ranking officer, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, was treated successfully for breast cancer this summer. (AP)

“I don’t want to die.” The human toll of so-called ghost networks. (NPR)

A number of Tufts University men’s lacrosse players were hospitalized for a rare muscle condition after a team workout with a graduate who’d had Navy SEAL training. (AP)

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