The Food and Drug Administration has released its sweeping regulatory plan to crack down on electronic cigarettes, specifically targeting the flavored products that are increasingly popular with teens. It also announced new steps to ban menthol from regular cigarettes.
What they're saying: New data "show astonishing increases in kids’ use of e-cigarettes ... reversing years of favorable trends in our nation’s fight to prevent youth addiction to tobacco products," FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. "These data shock my conscience."
The Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces will be more competitive next year than they were this year, according to a report yesterday from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Yes, but: 2018 was the low point for ACA competition. The marketplaces still aren’t back to where they were in their best years — 2015 and 2016, when only a handful of ACA customers didn’t have a choice of insurers.
The Food and Drug Administration will announce today a series of actions aimed at cracking down on youth vaping, despite e-cigarette maker Juul's last-minute effort to self-police.
Between the lines: After years of warnings that flavored e-cigarettes appeal to young people, data finally drove the point home, prompting a Republican administration to move forward with an especially tough regulatory crackdown.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data reporting a record number of cases of tickborne diseases, increasing from 48,610 in 2016 to 59,349 cases in 2017.
Why it matters: All types of tickborne diseases rose, including Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Powassan virus disease. But, the U.S. is not preparedto control the growing threat posed by ticks, mosquitos and fleas because 84% of local vector control organizations lack at least one critical capacity, per an earlier CDC report.
The U.S. is facing a "significant impediment" to its overall plan to help the Democratic Republic of the Congo bring its deadly Ebola outbreak to an end, as inadequate security continues to plague the region near Beni, the epicenter of the outbreak.
Why it matters: The DRC is currently dealing with its worst-ever outbreak of Ebola, and the epicenter is in an area where there's been civil unrest for decades. There's also concern the outbreak could last for years, due to a deadly combination of the virus, pockets of community distrust of health and government workers, and periodic violent incidents that keep forcing the need for quarantines, vaccinations and treatment regimes.
