Top news stories from AMA Morning Rounds®: Week of June 19, 2023

Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of June 19, 2023–June 23, 2023.

The New York Times (6/22, Jewett) reports, “Sales of e-cigarettes rose by nearly 47% from January 2020, just before the pandemic hit the United States, to December 2022, according to an analysis released on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” This “increase...occurred while teenagers and young adults reported in surveys that they had recently tried e-cigarettes at much higher rates than older adults did.” Data show that “sales were still growing through May of last year, but then dropped by 12% through December.” Investigators “attributed the decline to several possible factors, including state or local bans on flavored products; government enforcement; and the introduction of devices that offered thousands of ‘puffs’ in a single device.”

ABC News (6/22, Kekatos) reports, “Researchers found the surge was mostly driven by disposable e-cigarettes in flavors, including fruit and candy, which are popular among youth and young adult users.” During the period studied, “the share of total sales made up by tobacco-flavored products fell from 28.4% to 20.1%, and the share of mint-flavored products saw a similar decline from making up 10.1% of all sales to 5.9%.” At the same time, “other flavors went from 29.2% of all sales to 41.3%.” The CDC also found that “while the share of pre-filled e-cigarette cartridges decreased from 75.2% to 48% of total sales, the share of disposable e-cigarette units increased from 24.7% to 51.8% of total sales.”

USA Today (6/21, Bennett Williams) reports, “Researchers have discovered a foreign microbe so deadly it’s considered a bioterrorism agent growing wild in the U.S— specifically in states along the Gulf of Mexico.” Researchers have detected “it in Mississippi and Texas, but in fresh water and soil.” While experts are “concerned about it spreading...most healthy folks who get it shake it off without missing a beat,” and the risks are primarily in immunocompromised people.

According to the Washington Post (6/20, Bever), primary care professionals may begin asking patients “about feelings of anxiety as part of a routine checkup, based on” a new recommendation statement from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) published June 20 in JAMA. The USPSTF’s recommendations stem “from concerns about a burgeoning mental health crisis, with growing concerns about depression, anxiety and suicide.” The task force’s “new guidelines state that asymptomatic adults ages 19 through 64, including those who are pregnant and postpartum, should be screened for anxiety disorders, using questionnaires and other screening tools.”

NBC News (6/20, Edwards) reports, “This is the first time the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has recommended routine mental health screening in primary care settings.” The task force’s “guidance may influence insurance company reimbursements, but” physicians “are not required to follow the group’s recommendations.” The USPSTF’s “recommendations are considered final,” however, “and mirror draft guidance on the topic was released last fall.”

According to Cardiovascular Business (6/20, Fornell), following “a priority review, the” FDA “has approved Agepha Pharma USA’s drug colchicine, sold and marketed under the name Lodoco,” as “the first anti-inflammatory medication approved by the” agency to treat cardiovascular disease (CVD). Research “leading to the drug’s market clearance demonstrated it can reduce the risk of myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, coronary revascularization and cardiovascular death in adult patients with established atherosclerotic disease or with multiple risk factors for CVD.” The medication “was shown to reduce the risk of cardiac events by 31% on top of statin medications, the current standard of care.” The drug’s efficacy and safety “in preventing heart attack and stroke is supported by randomized trial data reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and European Heart Journal.”

The New York Times (6/16, Weiland) reported President Biden on Friday “said that he planned to appoint Dr. Mandy Cohen, the former North Carolina health secretary, as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a widely expected move that marks a major transition at the federal agency tasked with overseeing the nation’s public health infrastructure.” Cohen will replace outgoing CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the “infectious disease expert who led the” agency “from the beginning of Mr. Biden’s term and announced last month that she would step down from her position on June 30.”

The Washington Post (6/16, Diamond, Sun) said Cohen will start “in early July.” In a statement, Walensky said Cohen’s “unique experience and accomplished tenure in North Carolina—along with her other career contributions—make her perfectly suited to lead CDC as it moves forward by building on the lessons learned from COVID-19 to create an organization poised to meet public health challenges of the future.”

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