The Wall Street Journal lifts the curtain on the behind-the-scenes work to build a public health legal challenge against a big company. In other public health news: football and CTE, caregivers, bias in science, dementia fears, screen time for toddlers, foster care, and more.

The Wall Street Journal:Inside The Mass-Tort Machine That Powers Thousands Of Roundup LawsuitsIn late 2016, a group of plaintiffs lawyers took the stage at the years largest gathering of their colleagues to talk up a promising new target. For 30 minutes, they laid out arguments linking the popular weedkiller Roundup to cancer. An arm of the World Health Organization had pegged Roundups main chemical ingredient as a probable carcinogen the year before, and it was quickly becoming a focus of the plaintiffs bar. Some product-liability lawyers in the audience in Las Vegas were skeptical. Tying exposure from everyday products like Roundup to cancer often is less straightforward than linking illness to medications or medical devices, said Chase Givens, a lawyer with the Cochran Firm who attended the event. (Randazzo and Bunge, 11/25)

The New York Times:They Love Football. They Try Not To Think About C.T.E.The human brain is hard-wired to manage conflicting thoughts and emotions. We know drinking alcohol can cause liver damage and burning fossil fuels is bad for the environment, but many of us still drink alcohol and still buy gas-guzzling vehicles. Most people have generally accepted that playing football, in addition to teaching life lessons about teamwork and dedication, can lead to long-term brain damage, like any activity that involves a lot of collisions with other human beings or crashes with the ground. (Lawrence, Cardenas and Futterman, 11/26)

The Washington Post:In Helping Elderly Parents, Caregivers Get A Peek At Their Futures And Are Inspired To Plan For Old AgeEven after Myrtle Lewiss mother reached her late 90s and could no longer drive or care for herself, she insisted on remaining in her home in Northeast Washington. Lewis, who was helping care for her mother, arranged for her to have a live-in companion, another older woman, named Kizzie. But watching her mothers world shrink as she knocked around a too-big house clarified a few things for Lewis, now 76. After a while it just became she and Kizzie. Theyd go to bed at 6:30, she said. (Bahrampour, 11/25)

Los Angeles Times:Researchers Have A Plan To Prevent Bias In Computer AlgorithmsScientists say theyve developed a framework to make computer algorithms safer to use without creating bias based on race, gender or other factors. The trick, they say, is to make it possible for users to tell the algorithm what kinds of pitfalls to avoid without having to know a lot about statistics or artificial intelligence. With this safeguard in place, hospitals, companies and other potential users who may be wary of putting machine learning to use could find it a more palatable tool for helping them solve problems, according to a report in this weeks edition of the journal Science. (Khan, 11/23)

Reuters:Study Shows Half Of Middle-Aged Americans Fear Theyll Get Dementia, Use Unproven SupplementsAbout half of middle-aged Americans believe theyre somewhat or very likely to develop dementia, a survey suggests, and many try to beat the odds with supplements such as ginkgo biloba and vitamin E that arent proven to help. Researchers examined data from the University of Michigans 2018 National Poll on Healthy Aging, a nationally representative survey of adults 50 to 80. Overall, 44.3 percent of respondents said they were at least somewhat likely to develop dementia, and 4.2 percent said they were very likely to develop dementia. (11/26)

WBUR:Antibiotics For Animals May Work For You, But Experts Say It's A Terrible IdeaWhen phlegm invades Andy Shecktors face or chest, he says he knows if the culprit is a bacterial infection. ...But on these occasions, Shecktor, a 63-year-old man from Berwick, Pennsylvania, doesnt go see a doctor, and he doesnt get a prescription for antibiotics. Instead, he pulls out a stash of medicine from his fridge that is clearly marked not for human consumption. It's for fish. (Chen, 11/26)

CNN:Explosive Growth In Screen Use By Toddlers, Studies SayUse of screen time explodes between 12 months and three years in the United States, and most Canadian preschoolers between the ages of two and three are not meeting World Health Organization recommendations for appropriate use of television, computers and other screens, according to two new studies published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. (LaMotte, 11/25)

The New York Times:He Had A Temporary Blast Of Amnesia. What Was Going On?Where am I? the 68-year-old man asked. His daughter explained again: He was at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut. He had been found on the ground in the parking lot of the grocery store near his apartment. The man nodded, as if taking it all in, but minutes later asked again: Where am I? He had never had any memory issues before, but now he couldnt remember that it was Saturday. Didnt remember that he spent the morning moving the last of the boxes he had stored at his daughters house to his new apartment. He didnt even remember that he had spent the past few months hashing out a pretty messy divorce. (Sanders, 11/26)

The Washington Post:One Judges Tough Approach To Foster Care: Its Only For The Really Extreme CasesThe courtroom looks more like a preschool than a command center for dismantling the citys foster care system. A stuffed penguin perches above the judges bench. A bookcase is filled with childrens favorites. And dozens of stuffed animals teddy bears, polar bears, pandas are scattered around the room. Juvenile Court Judge Ernestine S. Gray gives each child who appears before her a bear and a book. She believes it makes what can be the worst day of their lives just a little easier. (Webster, 11/25)

The Washington Post:This Top Pediatric Allergist Swears By Meditation And Thinks It Can Fight Medical BurnoutPhysician Hemant Sharma has worked at Childrens National Hospital for 11 years and serves as its chief of allergy and immunology. The 44-year-old Howard County, Md., resident commutes daily to Washington and rotates between four of the hospitals facilities, treating patients, teaching and mentoring younger physicians, overseeing administration, and conducting clinical research. Hes aware of how so many demands might affect his well-being and believes addressing burnout is a vital issue for the medical profession and others. I think a number of professions now are facing this challenge, where the chronicity of our daily stress is preventing us from giving 100 percent of what we want to the populations that were serving. (Carefoot, 11/25)

The New York Times:The Costly, Life-Disrupting Consequences Of Poor Diabetes CareDiabetes, whether Type 1 or Type 2, may be the most underappreciated, misunderstood and poorly treated of all common medical problems, and many of the more than 30 million Americans affected by it are paying dearly with their health and lives as a result. Contrary to what many people think, diabetes is not just a disease of abnormal blood sugar control caused by a lack of insulin or an inadequate response to this crucial hormone. (Brody, 11/25)

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Behind The Thousands Of Lawsuits Against Roundup Weed Killer Lurks A Sophisticated, Little-Known Legal Ecosystem - Kaiser Health News

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