HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

June 14, 2017 (San Diego’s East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting-edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Insurance policy: How an industry shifted from protecting patients to seeking profit (Stanford Medicine)
• Yemen cholera cases pass 100,000 in unprecedented epidemic (BBC)
• America’s health inequality problem (The Atlantic)
• Babies Sleep Better in Their Own Rooms After 4 Months, Study Finds (NPR)
• Some Small Tumors in Breasts May Not Be So Bad After All (NPR)
• A Dad Takes His Son to the Doctor and Discovers Fear of Vaccines (NPR)

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

• Supreme Court rules cell phones cannot be searched without a warrant (MSNBC)
• Who's your mummy? Genetic secrets of ancient Egypt unwrapped  (Reuters)
• Kiwis take front line in global war against invasive species (CS Monitor)
• When Trump blocks someone on Twitter does that violate the First Amendment?(10 News)
• Covfefe Act would make social media a presidential record (The Hill)
• Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen Unveils Stratolaunch, the World's Largest Plane (CNet Traveler)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

HEALTH

Insurance policy: How an industry shifted from protecting patients to seeking profit (Stanford Medicine)

In this excerpt, Rosenthal explains how the transformation of the United States’ health care economy began: with the creation of insurance companies and their evolution into for-profit entities… The people who founded the Blue Cross Association in Texas nearly a century ago had no idea how their innovation would spin out of control. They intended it to help the sick. And, in the beginning, it did.

Yemen cholera cases pass 100,000 in unprecedented epidemic (BBC)

…The charity Oxfam said the epidemic was killing one person almost every hour. Yemen's health, water and sanitation systems are collapsing after two years of war between government forces and the rebel Houthi movement.

America’s health inequality problem (The Atlantic)

The U.S. has one of the largest income-based health disparities in the world, according to a new paper out in the journal Health Affairs. Among the poorest third of Americans studied, 38.2 percent report being in “fair or poor” health, compared with 12.3 percent of the richest third. Only Chile and Portugal have a larger income-based gap in the health status of their citizens.

Babies Sleep Better in Their Own Rooms After 4 Months, Study Finds (NPR)

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants sleep in their parents' room for at least six months. But some experts say scientific evidence does not back up the guidelines.

Some Small Tumors in Breasts May Not Be So Bad After All (NPR)

Research indicates a significant number of the tumors detected through mammography are small because they are prone to slow growth. The findings suggest many are unlikely to become life-threatening.

A Dad Takes His Son to the Doctor and Discovers Fear of Vaccines (NPR)

...This is a post about fear. If there is one thing that psychologists can say for sure, it's that fear is more deep and powerful than just about any other emotion we can experience

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Supreme Court rules cell phones cannot be searched without a warrant (MSNBC)

Police need a warrant to search the cell phone of a person who has been arrested, absent special circumstances, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. “Modern cell phones are not just another technological convenience. With all they contain and all they may reveal, they hold for many Americans ‘the privacies of life,’” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.

Who's your mummy? Genetic secrets of ancient Egypt unwrapped  (Reuters)

 DNA from mummies... is unwrapping intriguing insight into the people of ancient Egypt, including a surprise discovery that they had scant genetic ties to sub-Saharan Africa…. The closest genetic ties were to the peoples of the ancient Near East, spanning parts of Iraq and Turkey as well as Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Kiwis take front line in global war against invasive species (CS Monitor)

New Zealand is home to one of the highest proportions of threatened species in the world. Desperate to save its beloved wildlife, the archipelago nation is seizing on a drastic and controversial strategy: kill all the predators.

When Trump blocks someone on Twitter does that violate the First Amendment?(10 News)

In a letter to Trump on Tuesday, lawyers from the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University called on the president to unblock people on Twitter. The group is representing two Twitter users who were blocked by the president after they tweeted critical statements to him…Courts have previously said public social media accounts used as public forums should not censor opinions.

Covfefe Act would make social media a presidential record (The Hill)

Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) introduced legislation Monday to classify presidential social media posts — including President Trump's much-discussed tweets — as presidential records. 

Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen Unveils Stratolaunch, the World's Largest Plane (CNet Traveler)

The Stratolaunch will be used to give rockets a head-start into space.