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POLLING
PETS: Via University of Michigan, VERBATIM: “In September 2025, the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging asked a national sample of adults age 50 and older about their pets, perceived benefits and challenges of having a pet, and reasons for not having a pet.”
“This poll shows that pets can offer older adults meaningful health and well-being benefits, including social connection and a sense of purpose. Having a pet in one’s life can also encourage physical activity and reduce stress. However, having a pet also requires time, flexibility, and financial resources; personal preferences and cost were older adults’ main reasons for not wanting a pet.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3MMDfAY
TRUMP: Via Reuters, VERBATIM: “Six in ten Americans, including a significant slice of Republicans, think President Donald Trump has become erratic as he ages, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. The six-day poll concluded on Monday, the day before the 79-year-old president gives his annual State of the Union address to Congress following a month of angry reprimands of lawmakers and judges. Overall, 61% of respondents in the poll said they would describe Trump as having ‘become erratic with age.’ Some 89% of Democrats, 30% of Republicans and 64% of independents described him this way.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/40utJpm
CDC: Via Forbes, VERBATIM: “Are Americans now seeing more ‘quacks’ in the walls of the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention? Well, a January 2026 KFF poll found that now less than half of Americans—only 47 percent—actually trust the CDC. This is down from 63 percent in September 2023, 58 percent in March 2025 and 50 percent in September 2025. Basically, trust in the agency that’s supposed to be protecting the health and public health of the U.S. went really down dog in 2025. Now, before you write this off as simply some kind of partisan divide, realize that it’s not as if trust in the CDC is currently high among either Democrats or Republicans.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3OvlgzK
Check out all the episodes of Sunday Take on 830 WCCO. CLICK: https://fluence-media.co/3KsuDrZ
MEDICAID SUPPORTS HEALTH CARE FOR ALL OF US: Medicaid keeps Minnesota’s hospitals strong and ensures communities across the state have access to care. Policymakers must protect Medicaid so every Minnesotan — regardless of income or health status — can get the care they need, when they need it. LEARN MORE: https://fluence-media.co/3FtrCuH (SPONSORED: Minnesota Hospital Association)
HEALTH POLICY
FIRST RESPONDERS: Via MPR, VERBATIM: “Minnesota legislators want to make sure first responders don’t run afoul of a gift ban for public officials just for accessing mental health resources. A bill that would explicitly allow first responders to access donated health and wellness resources received bipartisan support Monday in the House Elections Finance and Government Operations Committee. Republican Rep. Bidal Duran of Bemidji, a veteran and former law enforcement officer, is the bill’s sponsor.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4ccKlt2
TASK FORCE: Via MedPage Today, VERBATIM: “HHS could completely eliminate the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) or delegitimize the independent body like it did with CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), two original USPSTF members warned . . . The task force has been around since 1984 and is made up of volunteer experts who review evidence and provide evidence-based recommendations on screening and other preventive care. By law, recommendations that garner an A or B grade -- such as colorectal or breast cancer screenings -- must be covered by insurers without any cost sharing for patients.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3N3lptH
CDC: Via Stat, VERBATIM: “The drama and chaos surrounding the leadership of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have taken another twist, with the announcement Monday that the agency’s No. 2 official, Ralph Abraham, has resigned. A statement posted to the CDC’s website said Abraham, a former Louisiana surgeon general who was sworn in as the agency’s deputy secretary general only 2 1/2 months ago, stepped down to address ‘unforeseen family obligations.’ The resignation is effective immediately.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4qYlD3p
VACCINE: Via UofM CIDRAP, VERBATIM: “Moderna announced late last week that its mRNA combined seasonal flu and COVID-19 vaccine proved robust and produced a durable immune response in a small, mid-stage trial. There were also no serious safety concerns.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4qSRmTe
MEASLES: Via KFF Health News, VERBATIM: “As U.S. hospitals face an increasing risk of encountering measles, and pressure to immediately spot it, health care workers face an unusual barrier: Many don’t know what it looks like. ‘There’s a word, ‘morbilliform’ — it means measles-like, and there are lots of viruses that can cause a rash that looks like a measles rash in children,’ said Theresa Flynn, a pediatrician in Raleigh and the president of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. In 30 years in health care, she’s never seen a measles case, she said. North Carolina has reported more than 20 cases since mid-December, and more than 3,000 people nationwide have been infected since the beginning of 2025.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3ZRqyYP
BIPOLAR: Via MedPage Today, VERBATIM: “The FDA approved milsaperidone (Bysanti) tablets as first-line therapy for adults with schizophrenia and manic or mixed episodes related to bipolar I disorder, Vanda Pharmaceuticals announced on Friday. Milsaperidone is an active metabolite of Vanda’s existing drug iloperidone (Fanapt) and represents a new chemical entity in the atypical antipsychotic class. In clinical research, milsaperidone was bioequivalent to iloperidone across all therapeutic doses, Vanda said.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4rDOwD0
RARE: Via Associated Press, VERBATIM: “Federal health officials on Monday laid out a proposal to spur development of customized treatments for patients with hard-to-treat diseases, including for rare genetic conditions that the pharmaceutical industry has long considered unprofitable. The preliminary Food and Drug Administration guidelines, if implemented, would create a new pathway for bespoke therapies that have only been tested in a handful of patients due to the challenges of conducting larger studies. The FDA announcement specifically mentions gene editing, although agency officials said the new approach could also be used by other drugs and therapies.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4cS0NPs
Support rural health care by strengthening 340B: Policymakers have an opportunity to support rural care providers by strengthening the 340B Drug Pricing Program – a program designed to support health care facilities that provide a high level of services to low-income, underserved communities. Savings from those discounts are used to reinvest in care and stretch limited resources further for patients. To prevent these savings from moving to drug manufacturers’ bottom lines, we need to extend and strengthen the 340B program. LEARN MORE: https://fluence-media.co/4s0oGc4 (SPONSORED: Essentia Health)
INNOVATION
STUDY: Via Mayo Clinic, VERBATIM: “The brain may inadvertently ‘learn’ to have seizures by treating them like important memories to be stored, according to new research from Mayo Clinic. The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, found that after a seizure, the brain enters a deep sleep state that mimics memory storage — and that this effect can persist into the following night’s sleep. In effect, this ‘saves’ the seizure’s path like a normal memory, strengthening the disease.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4kQK2WV
HEART: Via Innovaccer, VERBATIM: “Innovaccer Inc., a leading healthcare AI company, today announced a strategic partnership with Allina Health Minneapolis Heart Institute’s Center for Healthcare Delivery Innovation to expand access to guideline-directed heart failure management across Minnesota and western Wisconsin. By using Story Health, Innovaccer’s virtual specialty care and patient monitoring platform, Allina Health Minneapolis Heart Institute will extend continuous Guideline-Directed Medical Therapy (GDMT) optimization into patients’ homes, making specialty cardiology care more accessible and more responsive than traditional clinic-based models.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3MWRROp
DATA: Via Mayo Clinic, VERBATIM: “Mayo Clinic announced today that researchers and solutions developers now have access to decades of high-level, de-identified data from Mercy through Mayo Clinic Platform’s secure, privacy-preserving infrastructure. Mercy, one of the 15 largest health systems in the U.S., has 55 acute care and specialty hospitals in both urban and rural communities in the Midwest. Through Mayo Clinic Platform, researchers, data scientists and innovators can now analyze larger, more diverse patient populations from both Mayo Clinic and Mercy to explore new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent diseases.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/46UIp4O
FORUM: If you’re interested in having the Fluence Forum host a topic, please contact Blois Olson at bloisolson@gmail.com
TUMORS: Via University of Waterloo, VERBATIM: “Researchers are engineering bacteria to invade tumors and consume them from the inside. Because tumor cores lack oxygen, they’re the perfect breeding ground for these microbes. The team added a genetic tweak that helps the bacteria survive longer near oxygen-exposed edges — but only once enough of them are present to trigger the change. It’s a carefully programmed biological attack that could one day offer a new way to destroy cancer.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/40ue1uq
ALZHEIMER’S: Via USC, VERBATIM: “Subtle changes in brain blood flow and oxygen use are closely linked to hallmark signs of Alzheimer’s, including amyloid plaques and memory-related brain shrinkage. Simple, noninvasive scans may one day help spot risk earlier—by looking at the brain’s vascular health, not just its plaques.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3Owe1Yh
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