Top news stories from AMA Morning Rounds®: Week of Oct. 23, 2023

Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of Oct. 23, 2023–Oct. 27, 2023.

USA Today (10/26, Rodriguez) reports a CDC advisory panel on has recommended a new vaccine to protect teens against meningococcal disease, which “can cause hearing loss, severe neurological damage, the loss of limbs, and, in many cases, death.” Previously, there were “two types of vaccines licensed in the United States: One that targets A, C, W, and Y serotypes of meningococcal disease and another that targets the B serotype.” Now, “the new pentavalent vaccine called Penbraya—created by drug giant Pfizer—requires only two doses and protects against the five most common disease serotypes: A, B, C, W and Y.” The FDA approved the vaccine “last week for ages 10 through 25. But the CDC’s advisory panel voted to add the new vaccine option for people 16 through 23.”

The AP (10/25, Stobbe) reports, “Gay and bisexual men at high risk for mpox infection should get vaccinated for the virus even after the current outbreak ends, government health advisers said Wednesday.” The recommendation by a panel of CDC advisers “now goes to the director [of] the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and—if she signs off on it—is sent out as guidance to U.S.” physicians. Over “30,000 U.S. mpox cases were reported last year.” That figure “dropped dramatically this year, to about 800.” However, “because the virus doesn’t naturally circulate in the U.S., any single case counts as an outbreak, according to the CDC.”

The New York Times (10/24, Weiland) reports, “Health workers feel burnout more frequently than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic, while also struggling with symptoms of anxiety and depression, sleep problems and harassment, according to a federal survey of American workers published on Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The result “compared data from 2018 and 2022 and underscored a dire staffing crisis in the nation’s health work force, which limped through the pandemic amid long hours, high turnover, violence in emergency departments and public vitriol over vaccines, masks and treatments.”

The Hill (10/24, Weixel) says the report found that, “overall, about 46% of health care workers reported feeling burnout often or very often in 2022, compared with 32% in 2018.” Almost “half of those in the field also reported they were likely or very likely to apply for a new job—in contrast to other worker groups who reported a decrease in job turnover intention.”

Healio (10/24, Rhoades) reports, “Harassment at work also rose from 6.4% to 13.4% from 2018 to 2022, and was linked to increased odds of: anxiety,” depression, and burnout.

Editor’s note: Occupational burnout is at an all-time high among physicians, and the AMA is leading the national effort to solve the crisis. Learn about our ongoing work to mitigate physician burnout by removing the obstacles and burdens that interfere with patient care.

The Hill (10/23, Choi) reports, “The monoclonal antibody for preventing the respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV, in infants is in short supply, and federal officials are advising doses be prioritized for those at the highest risk for severe illness, with the drug’s manufacturer saying demand has outpaced expectations.” On Monday, the CDC “issued a health advisory recommending prioritizing available 100-milligram doses of the RSV monoclonal antibody nirsevimab—known commercially as Beyfortus—for ‘infants at the highest risk for severe RSV disease.’” This includes “infants younger than 6 months and those with underlying conditions.”

CNN (10/20, Musa) reported, “After years of increases, the rate of firearm-related homicides in the United States decreased in 2022, according to data published...by the” CDC. CNN added, “This is the first time the national firearm homicide rate has fallen since a sharp increase was recorded from 2019 to 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the CDC.” The “provisional CDC data from 2022 saw 5.9 deaths per 100,000 people, about a 6% decrease from 2021.”

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