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August 28, 2025

Medicare Will Require Prior Approval for Certain Procedures

(New York Times) – A pilot program in six states will use a tactic employed by private insurers that has been heavily criticized for delaying and denying medical care. The federal government plans to hire private companies to use artificial … Read More

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August 28, 2025

911 Centers Are So Understaffed, They’re Turning to AI to Answer Calls

(TechCrunch) – When he started to research how municipal non-emergency response call centers work, he discovered that they are often handled by the same people who are answering actual 911 emergencies. Aurelian pivoted to building an AI voice assistant that … Read More

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August 28, 2025

China Is Building a Brain-Computer Interface Industry

(Wired) – A new policy document outlines China’s plan to create an internationally competitive BCI industry within five years, and proposes developing devices for both health and consumer uses. Jointly authored in July by seven departments within the Chinese government—including … Read More

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August 28, 2025

The Men Suing Over Their Partners’ Abortions

(Wall Street Journal) – The antiabortion movement has found an unlikely new ally to target abortion providers: husbands, boyfriends and exes.  Men have filed several recent lawsuits stemming from abortions obtained by their partners or ex-partners. The strategy is part … Read More

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August 28, 2025

Flesh-eating Bacteria Cases Are Rising. Climate Change Is to Blame, Say Scientists

(CNN) – That small scratch on Lyons’ leg became the entryway for Vibrio vulnificus, also known as flesh-eating bacteria. Those black sores on his leg signified necrotizing fasciitis, which “affects the tissue under your skin,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. … Read More

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August 28, 2025

The latest COVID vaccines come with new FDA limits

(NPR) – The Food and Drug Administration approved the next round of COVID-19 vaccines Wednesday, but imposed new restrictions on who’s eligible to get receive them. The agency is limiting the updated shots to people who are at risk for … Read More

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August 28, 2025

When hospitals and insurers fight, patients get caught in the middle

(NPR) – A growing number of Americans find themselves in a similar pinch. In New York City, negotiations between UnitedHealthcare and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center missed a June 30 deadline, briefly leaving some patients in limbo until a deal … Read More

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August 27, 2025

Pregnancy has become a nightmare for many women in Nigeria’s conflict-hit north

(ABC News) – The odds are stacked against pregnant women in Nigeria’s northeast like never before. The deadly Boko Haram militant group is making a resurgence. And hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid from the United States, once … Read More

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August 27, 2025

AI ‘deadbots’ are persuasive — and researchers say they’re primed for monetization

(NPR) – The digital afterlife industry, which manages a person’s digital assets after their death, is expected to quadruple in size to nearly $80 billion over the next decade. That includes the creation of deadbots. The more immersive these bots … Read More

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August 27, 2025

OpenAI updates ChatGPT as it faces a lawsuit over a teen’s suicide

(Quartz) – OpenAI says it’s updating ChatGPT to better recognize when a user is in serious emotional or mental distress as it gets hit with a lawsuit alleging the chatbot aided in a teen’s suicide. The company made the announcement … Read More

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August 27, 2025

Type 2 diabetes prevented with adherence to Mediterranean diet and exercise, study finds

(CNN) – A combination of a lower-calorie Mediterranean diet, exercise and nutritional support kept overweight to severely obese people between the ages of 55 and 75 from progressing to type 2 diabetes, a new study found. “Our study shows that … Read More

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August 27, 2025

Smart glasses record people in public. The most online generation is pushing back.

(Washington Post via MSN) – As camera-enabled glasses become more common in public places, young people are pushing back on what many see as a frightening invasion of privacy. On TikTok, a young woman shared a video earlier this month … Read More

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August 27, 2025

AI robots are helping South Korea’s seniors feel less alone

(Rest of World) – A ChatGPT-powered robotic companion called Hyodol is taking over some work from overburdened caregivers, much to the delight of seniors who treat them like grandchildren. Kim lives alone in Guro, an industrial hub in the bustling … Read More

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August 27, 2025

A New Edition of Public Health Ethics is Now Available

Public Health Ethics (vol. 18, no. 2, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles Include:

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August 27, 2025

Two Texas Moms Were Forced to Wait for Urgent Care After Pregnancy Loss. They Died.

(Longreads) – “Standard of Fear,” a project led by Lauren Caruba and Marin Wolf of The Dallas Morning News, details the consequences of recent laws restricting abortions in Texas, which now has “one of the country’s most strict and punitive … Read More

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