Lionel Richie Hospitalized; CDC Challenges Measles Toll; Vitamin K Refusals Rise

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Singer Lionel Richie, age 77, checked himself into a hospital to have tests, potentially for dehydration, after a performance in St. Louis on Saturday. (CBS)

The CDC’s new director Erica Schwartz, MD, MPH, JD, challenged Pennsylvania’s report of two measles deaths, placing CDC in the middle of a political disagreement about whether the deaths resulted from measles or simply coincided with infections. (New York Times)

The agency also launched the Overdose Prevention Data Channel tool that aims to bring together key information from a trio of CDC data systems to show what is happening with drug overdoses in the U.S.

President Donald Trump touted new drug pricing deals with nine drugmakers for them to sell their medications for less in the administration’s latest bid to bring U.S. drug prices in line with less expensive ones abroad. (CNBC)

The FDA announced that it expanded the indication for ustekinumab (Stelara) injection to treat moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis in pediatric patients at least 2 years of age.

The agency also said it approved ropeginterferon alfa-2b-njft (Besremi) injection to treat adults with essential thrombocythemia.

There was a sharp acceleration this year in the percentage of parents refusing a vitamin K shot for infants at ⁠birth to prevent against dangerous bleeding episodes, according to a Reuters data analysis. (Reuters via Yahoo News)

As Ebola rages on in Congo, authorities reported that the fastest-growing outbreak has topped 6,000 cases and caused 2,911 deaths. (AP)

An American College of Physicians position paper called for artificial intelligence use to be aligned with ethical and professional standards to improve patient care. (Annals of Internal Medicine)

In a randomized trial, cannabis edibles dose-dependently impaired simulated driving performance at blood THC concentrations below common used thresholds for roadside enforcement. (JAMA Network Open)

Value-based care is a system that was never built for children, physicians argued in a viewpoint published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Two-thirds of Americans favor banning the herbicide glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup weed killer, according to a survey conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mangoes sold at Walmart have been recalled due to potential contamination with Salmonella, according to an FDA notice.

Everything Sprouts expanded an ongoing recall to include certain lots of Robust Radish Sprout Mix due to potential contamination with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli or Salmonella, the FDA said.

People are turning to a risky gray market to gain access to investigational retatrutide, touted as a next-gen weight loss drug that goes a step beyond GLP-1 drugs. (The Guardian)

And here’s a look at the human toll of heat. (NPR)