| | | | |  | | By Ruth Reader, Daniel Payne, Carmen Paun and Erin Schumaker | | Presented by |  | | | | | | | 
Rodgers (left) couldn't convince Pallone to support the latest version of the Kids Online Safety Act. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | The prospects for a new law to regulate social media have taken a nosedive. That’s despite approval Wednesday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee of legislation that aims to make the sites safer for kids and passage in the Senate in July of a bill by the same name on a 91-3 vote. How’s that? The House panel’s approval of the Kids Online Safety Act came with an asterisk. Democrats objected to an amendment they said would remove a requirement that the sites protect kids from content that could harm their mental health. And the version the panel ultimately approved is different from the one senators passed. As a result, even if the House passes the bill, representatives and senators would need to agree, and then vote again, to get the legislation to President Joe Biden’s desk. The backstory: The chief sponsor of the House bill, Florida Republican Gus Bilirakis, warned that the original language would have opened up the measure to challenge by tech interests on First Amendment grounds. But Democrats, including the committee’s ranking member, Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), and the Health Subcommittee’s ranking Democrat, Anna Eshoo of California, said Bilirakis’ amendment effectively gutted the bill. GOP divisions: Republican concerns prompted Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), who supports the bill, to cancel a planned markup in June. The Bilirakis amendment helped unify her caucus in Wednesday’s vote. But the preceding debate showed that not every Republican is comfortable with the new version. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said he objected to giving the Federal Trade Commission power to determine whether social media companies are protecting kids, arguing it would open a legal morass. He also said he doubted the measure would actually do much to shield children from harm, suggesting it made more sense to ban kids from using the sites. Meanwhile, the House Freedom Caucus, a group of the chamber’s most conservative Republicans, sent a letter before the vote, raising concerns that the Kids Online Safety Act infringes on free speech. A source familiar with the caucus’ thinking, granted anonymity to discuss its private deliberations, told POLITICO that the new version doesn’t address all of its objections.
| | | | A message from The American Association for Cancer Research®: September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. According to the AACR Cancer Progress Report 2024 released this week by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), more and better treatment options have led to significant progress against many childhood and adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancers. This report provides the latest statistics on cancer incidence, mortality, and survivorship, and features personal stories from patients who have benefitted from innovative anticancer treatments. See the report. | | | | | | | 
New Harbor, Maine | Shawn Zeller/POLITICO | This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. A Japanese capsule hotel chain offers both a tiny room and a sleep analysis, Bloomberg reports. The capsule has “soft lighting, comfortable bedding, and a pull-down curtain for privacy.” It also has a camera, microphone, and body sensor to check the soundness of your Z’s. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com, Daniel Payne at dpayne@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com, or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp.
| | | | A message from The American Association for Cancer Research®:   | | | | | | | 
New grant money aims to train doctors, particularly in rural and underserved communities. | Jens Schlueter/Getty Images | The Biden administration plans another infusion of money to train health workers. The administration announced this week that it would use $100 million in new grants to target high-priority needs, from opioid use disorder to youth mental illness. The awards will include: — More than $63 million over four years for community-based providers who focus on substance use disorders — Nearly $12 million for primary care doctors in underserved areas — More than $19 million over four years for training nurses — More than $4.5 million for integrating mental health into pediatric care Deja vu: The awards come just over a year after the administration announced $100 million in grants to expand the nursing workforce. Why it matters: Clinician shortages in some areas — and the rising demand for care — have made building up the workforce a priority for lawmakers, federal officials and health system leaders alike.
| | | | A message from The American Association for Cancer Research®: September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Read about the recent advances in childhood and adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancers in the AACR Cancer Progress Report 2024 released this week by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). According to the report, the five-year relative survival rate for children diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. has improved from 58% for those diagnosed in the mid-1970s to 85% for those diagnosed between 2013 and 2019. The report highlights how the dedicated efforts of researchers working across the continuum of cancer science, along with sustained federal funding, have powered breakthroughs in clinical care that are improving survival and quality of life for patients in the U.S. and around the world. Hear the personal stories of 10-year-old Michael Methner and 17-year-old Parker Shaw and how they directly benefited from these advances. See their stories. | | | | | | | 
The polio vaccination campaign in Gaza could stop an epidemic in the making. | AP | The World Health Organization is making the case that its polio vaccination campaign in Gaza, which reached more than half a million children over the past two weeks, is essential not only for the children in the conflict area but for the rest of the world, too. How so? “Many countries have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to become polio-free and continue to maintain surveillance and immunization against polio. It is a huge political and public health deal for them if they get reinfected with poliovirus,” said Dr. Hamid Jafari, the WHO’s polio eradication director. All that investment could be lost if polio were allowed to spread, he argued, threatening people in the West Bank, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Polio is already quite common in Gaza, “and the force of infection is very high,” raising the risk of onward spread, Jafari told Carmen. The virus, which can cause paralysis and mostly affects children under 5, is thought to have been introduced in Gaza in September 2023. It’s connected to a strain that circulated in the neighboring Sinai Peninsula in Egypt last year, Jafari said. Gaza had been polio-free for a quarter of a century when the virus was detected this summer in wastewater, which is overflowing on the streets. A 10-month-old boy is now paralyzed from the disease. The destruction brought by the conflict between Israel and Hamas since last October, which has killed tens of thousands of people, destroyed health facilities and displaced Gaza’s population multiple times. It’s led people to live in unsanitary, overcrowded conditions that are a breeding ground for the virus. Vaccination rates, particularly for the youngest children, many of them born just before or during the war, have dropped. What’s next? A new round to vaccinate children with the second dose of the oral polio vaccine is planned within four weeks, the WHO said. “Until we have completed these two rounds, many of the [youngest children] are at risk of paralytic polio,” Jafari said. To control the outbreak and prevent its international spread, at least 90 percent of Gaza’s children should be vaccinated with both doses, he said. Independent monitors will be deployed in the area before the second vaccination round to evaluate its progress. The WHO called for them to be given “safe, unimpeded access.” | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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