Politico's Pulse Check

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) takes the reins of the Senate HELP Committee next month. Lauren Gardner talks with Megan Wilson about why lobbyists are bracing for what comes next.

The House voted on the National Defense Authorization Act last week – the Senate hasn’t yet, but it’s one step closer to passage. Grace Scullion talks with Carmen Paun about the NDAA's planned $5 billion over five years for global health security.

At least 3,500 Americans have died due, at least in part, to long Covid, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ben Leonard talks with Krista Mahr about the analysis from the CDC’s Center for National Health Statistics.

Katherine Ellen Foley talks with Megan Messerly about the situation inside hospitals as Covid, RSV and flu cases rise. Nearly 30,000 people currently U.S. hospitals have tested positive for Covid-19, according to the CDC, up 30 percent since Thanksgiving — with New York, Arizona and New Mexico among the hardest hit.

Today in our Pulse Check podcast, Lauren Gardner talks with Megan Messerly about the introduction of biosimilars next year to compete with Humira, the anti-inflammatory used to treat arthritis that has been the best-selling drug in America. Competition could reduce prices for consumers, but that’s not certain. Lauren explains how it could play out. 

Retiring Republican Rep. Fred Upton has been a big advocate for major health care policies in his tenure. He joined Ruth Reader to discuss what he accomplished while in office and his hopes for Cures 2.0 and the PASTEUR act. Later, John Halamka talks about the future of AI in health care.

At the second day of the Milken Future of Health conference, Grace Scullion talks with Dr. Ofer Levy, a pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases at Boston Children's Hospital and a voting member of the FDA COVID vaccine advisory panel. Plus, Sen. Tim Kaine on why he's optimistic there will be funding for long covid in an end-of-year omnibus.

At the first day of the Milken Future of Healthcare conference, Ben Leonard talks with Steve Posnack, the Deputy National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS, about what he thinks the biggest barriers are to people getting access to their health data. Plus, over on Capitol Hill, lobbying reporter Megan Wilson attended a Q&A with Jack Resneck, the president of the American Medical Association, who is in town to push lawmakers to avert nearly 8.5 percent in Medicare payment cuts that doctors face in January unless Congress acts.

Ben Leonard talks with Erin Banco about her investigation into why the FDA team overseeing licensed vaccines is overwhelmed by high turnover and a backlog of inspections. Also, Shawn Zeller provides a preview of the Milken Institute’s Future of Health Summit, which starts today.

Washington’s top pharmaceutical lobby is doing some self-reflection, commissioning a report that looks at its advocacy in the runup to its most consequential legislative loss in decades. Megan R. Wilson talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about the upcoming report.

Elon Musk’s health tech company Neuralink shared updates to its brain-implant technology on Wednesday. Ben Leonard talks with Ruth Reader about the technology, which has big implications for people who suffer with mobility issues such as those with spinal cord injuries or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Democratic governors in North Carolina and Kansas are set to take another run at expanding Medicaid next year. Megan Messerly talks with Megan Wilson about how increased federal incentives and Medicaid expansion advocates have gradually worn down traditional GOP opposition. 

Daniel Payne talks with Lauren Gardner about the lobbying from health care providers trying to convince lawmakers to extend the telehealth rules that were passed during the pandemic — and that would expire after the lifting of the Covid-19 public health emergency. 

Doctors, researchers and women’s activists convened in Riga, Latvia, to explore ways to use pills to circumvent anti-abortion laws. Emily Schultheis talks with Ruth Reader about this network of activists that is becoming increasingly international.

Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services declared that long Covid can be classified as a disability under federal law, opening up protections and accommodations that extend into the workplace. POLITICO labor reporter Nick Niedzwiadek joins Katherine Ellen Foley to discuss how gaps between what the law requires of employers and the on-the-ground reality factor into how people with long Covid can receive disability assistance if merited and be productive employees if possible.

Host Carmen Paun talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about her exclusive report on a new strategy being used by abortion opponents. The approach comes as the pills mifepristone and misoprostol, taken at home during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, have become the most common method of abortion in the U.S. and virtually the only option for millions of people in states with laws that have forced clinics to close since Roe v. Wade was overturned.    

Ruth Reader and Katherine Ellen Foley discuss the impact on long Covid treatments if the new congress doesn’t approve additional funding for Covid-19 research. The Biden administration has asked Congress for more than $9 billion in additional funding for Covid-19 that would go toward next-generation vaccine development and long Covid research, a poorly understood, chronic condition affecting millions of Americans. But the incoming divided Congress is unlikely to back federal requests funding research into viable treatments for long Covid and big pharma has yet to launch major studies. An ongoing medical debate about what exactly long Covid is means the industry doesn’t yet have a specific target for therapeutic treatment research. Without further funds, the fledgling research on potential treatments may come to a standstill.

Katherine Ellen Foley talks with Krista Mahr about why the rise of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants 6 months and younger is worse this season compared to previous seasons. This statement comes after the Children’s Hospital Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics asked the Biden administration to declare a public health emergency over the surging caseloads filling pediatric hospitals. 

Ben Leonard talks with Ruth Reader about why venture capitalists are pulling back on investments in health tech because of recession fears and rising interest rates — threatening a period of stasis in medical innovation.