Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Powdered Fentanyl Blamed After Dozens Sickened Last Week In New Mexico
First responders were exposed to fentanyl and sickened after arriving at a rural New Mexico home earlier this week to investigate a possible overdose that left three people dead, officials said Friday. They found four people unconscious at the home in Mountainair, east of Albuquerque, and two of them were declared dead at the scene, officials said. (Li and Morrison, 5/22)
In other health news from across the U.S.
Emergency officials lifted an evacuation order for some of the people who live near a damaged tank containing a hazardous chemical in Southern California after temperatures inside the tank fell enough to eliminate the risk of a catastrophic explosion. While theres no longer a risk of a major explosion at the GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems plant in Garden Grove, theres still a chance for a smaller blast or a fire, Orange County Fire Authority division chief Craig Covey said during a news conference on Monday. (Willingham and Stengle, 5/26)
Health officials in Philadelphia are recommending certain patients of a dental clinic accused of following "unsanitary practices" get tested for hepatitis and HIV due to potential exposures from April 2025 to May 2026, the city's Department of Public Health said in a statement this week. Officials on Wednesday identified the dental clinic in Center City Philadelphia as Smiles at Rittenhouse Square, also called Smiles on the Square, and said it is now closed due to the dentist's temporary suspension.(Abdelmalek and Cobern, 5/22)
Illinois will receive $295 million to address lead in drinking water as part of a $921 million regional investment, the federal government has announced. The move is one of many actions under the Federal Lead Action Plan, launched in President Donald Trumps first term and aligned with his administrations newer campaign to Make America Healthy Again. (Perez, 5/24)
Since October, Virginia State Police has not conducted background checks for the private sale of firearms at any of the gun shows organized by Annette Elliott, owner of Showmasters, she said. And state police were not present at the show she organized in mid-May one of more than a dozen planned and held in Virginia in 2026 almost a full month after a bill aimed at reestablishing universal background checks in the commonwealth was enacted. (Beyer, 5/26)
Judges, state public defenders and city officials in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are taking steps to curb a cycle of missed court dates and arrest warrants for crimes related to living outside that has led to a county jail population thats about half homeless. Eighteen months ago, judges in Bernalillo County, which includes Albuquerque, noticed an increase in charges related to homelessness including for obstructing a sidewalk, unlawful camping and unlawful storage of personal property. (Santa Cruz, 5/26)
Housing affordability is a serious and persistent issue across neighborhoods, incomes, and age groups in Orleans Parish and across the state. Even for longtime homeowners with fixed rate mortgages, rising insurance and property taxes are reducing affordability. Fortunately, one longstanding statewide policy gives vulnerable homeowners an opportunity to freeze their property taxes. Currently, more than 18,000 Orleans Parish households have age or disability freezes specifically designed to keep assessments from going up. (Pealer, 5/25)
Bailey Magers and Sunil Kumar cut strange figures on Pensacola Beach. Bags of disinfectant solution surrounded them on the white sand; their gloved hands juggled test tubes while layers of rubber and plastic shielded their skin from the elements. As the two organized their seawater samples on the popular Florida shoreline last August, an older woman wearing a swimsuit walked over to ask what they were doing. (Teirstein, 5/23)
On autism therapy clinics
On a sunny Wednesday morning last month, dozens of preschoolers filed into a Compleat Kidz autism clinic in Concord, N.C. One wore light-up sneakers. Another had a Spider-Man lunchbox. They settled into tiny green cubicles, each accompanied by a staff member, and started their work. A decade ago, this Charlotte suburb had no clinics providing therapy to children with autism. Now it has 12. Inside this one, children buzzed with activity as they worked long sessions with therapists. One 6-year-old girl, exhausted after hours of therapy, fell fast asleep in her therapists lap. Soon, a supervisor, Stephen Schroeder, intervened. (Kliff and Sanger-Katz, 5/23)
Over the past decade, thousands of autism clinics have opened across the country. The growth has been fueled by rising autism diagnoses and a federal requirement that all state Medicaid programs pay for the treatment. The industry has recently received significant investment from private equity firms. A New York Times investigation found that the clinics often prioritize billing opportunities in ways that may harm children and overcharge the government. Many overprescribe hours, and some discourage parents from enrolling their children in school. (Kliff and Sanger-Katz, 5/23)
