Happy Super Bowl Sunday

David Ermer–Congress, Obesity, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Dave Adamson on Unsplash
  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “Cardiologists advise having a game plan for the Super Bowl. Don’t overdo it on the nachos, sideline some of the salty snacks, and punt on more than a couple of beers. “You’re entitled to live life,” said Dr. Brett Sealove, chief of cardiology at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, N.J. “You just shouldn’t have a thousand wings, a bag of chips and go outside and smoke a pack of cigarettes.” 
    • “Burn off stress hormones by moving around for
      five or 10 minutes during breaks in the game, said O’Keefe. “Shoot a few baskets, take the dog for a walk around the block,” he said.” 

From Washington, D.C.,

  • Committee hearings worth noting:
    • House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health
      Feb. 11, 2025, 2:00 PM ET | 1100 Longworth House Office Bldg, Washington, D.C.
      Hearing: Modernizing American Health Care: Creating Healthy Options and Better Incentives
      Witnesses: Brooks Tingle, Dr. Jay Carlson, Marcie Strouse, Leslie Dach.
      Meeting Details
    • Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
    • Feb. 12, 2025. 10:00 AM ET – Senate | G50 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.
    • Meeting: Hearings to examine the nomination of Lori Chavez-DeRemer, of Oregon, to be Secretary of Labor.
    • Related Items: PN11-4
    • Meeting Details
  • Roll Call adds,
    • “Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday that tentative plans for a House Budget Committee markup this week may now be postponed as Republican lawmakers continue to struggle to reach an agreement on the framework for a massive reconciliation package containing much of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.
    • “House leaders had been hoping to work through the weekend to reach agreement on a budget resolution that would allow for a markup as early as Tuesday. But Johnson said on “Fox News Sunday” that more time is needed.
    • “We were going to do a Budget Committee markup next week,” the Louisiana Republican said Sunday morning at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, where he was preparing to watch the Super Bowl with President Donald Trump. “We might push it a little bit further because the details really matter. Remember that I have the smallest margin in history, about a two-vote margin currently, so I’ve got to make sure everyone agrees before we bring the project forward, that final product. And we’ve got a few more boxes to check, but we’re getting very, very close.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The Wall Street Journal delves into bird flu.
    • “Bird flu’s risk for the general public is still low, with no signs of person-to-person transmission, researchers said. People are still safe to eat cooked eggs and poultry and drink pasteurized milk, they said, since heating milk and other animal products to high temperatures kills the virus. The chance of infected poultry or eggs entering the commercial market is also low, health officials said.  
    • “But health officials and researchers do advise people to be cautious: Avoid interacting with wild birds or sick animals, don’t consume raw milk or cheese, and properly cook and handle poultry. 
    • “Pasteurization is a tried and true intervention that we have to make sure our milk supply is safe,” said Dr. Manisha Juthani, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health. “Raw milk is most definitely a risk for not just H5N1 but many other things.”
    • “People with exposure to infected animals are at greater risk, especially if they aren’t using protective equipment. Dozens of farmworkers have been infected, and at least one person was infected after contact with wild birds and a noncommercial backyard flock.” 
  • The New York Times reports,
    • “Surgeons in Boston successfully transplanted the kidney of a genetically modified pig into a 66-year-old man with kidney failure last month, Massachusetts General Hospital announced on Friday.
    • “It was the fourth pig kidney transplant in the United States, and the first of three that will be done at Mass General as part of a new clinical trial sanctioned by the Food and Drug Administration. Two of the previous patients died shortly after the procedure, including one who was critically ill before the transplant.
    • ‘More than 100,000 people in the country are on waiting lists for transplant organs, mostly kidneys, but there is an acute shortage of human donor organs. Many people will die while waiting.
    • “To help alleviate the shortage, several biotech companies are editing the genes of pigs so that their organs will not be easily rejected by the human body.
    • “The new clinical trial, which is using organs produced by the biotech company eGenesis, is one of two studies of genetically engineered animal organs that got a green light from regulators earlier this week. The other, sponsored by United Therapeutics Corporation, will begin later this year with six patients, but that number could eventually rise to 50.
    • “The latest transplant recipient, Tim Andrews of Concord, N.H., had his surgery in late January and was well enough to be discharged a week later.”
  • Medscape discusses current considerations for prescribing GLP-1 drugs to patients.