Insights

<p><a href="http://www.prospect.org/">The American Prospect</a> has done health reporters everywhere a huge service.</p>

<p>From DNA backpedaling to irrational nonsense to Typhoid Mamey, here’s what we’re reading about this morning:</p>

<p>From Medicare scamsters to "biblical flu" to a simple walk to school, here's what we're reading today:</p>

<p>From extreme superbugs to NSFW cancer screening campaigns: welcome to Wednesday’s Daily Briefing!</p> <p>Here’s what we’re reading and watching today:</p>

<p><em>Antidote</em> has been on an alphabetical tour of state medical boards this year. As summer fades, I thought it would be a good time to pull over. To show where we’ve been, I created this Google map, and I will update it weekly.</p>

<p>It is a terrible irony that journalist Kevan Carter died so young — of a massive stroke at age 55 — after <a href="http://www.reportingonhealth.org/fellowships/projects/soul-food">writing so sweetly</a> about good food, soul food and the disproportionate toll that heart disease and stroke exact on African Americans.</p>

<p>I will be writing stories about the drops in life expectancy in the United States.</p> <p>The Lancet recently published research showing that the United States is lagging farther behind other countries in preventing deaths. The United States now ranks 49th in the world in female mortality and 45th for male mortality.</p>

<p>Here's what we're reading today:</p> <p><strong>Oil Spill:</strong> The Institute of Medicine releases a hefty <a href="http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12949">report on the effects of the Gulf oil spill on human health</a>.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Here's what we're reading about today, from genetically modified mosquitos to an epic Facebook fail:</p><p><strong>Facebook:</strong> This is pretty awful: A Long Beach, Calif. hospital has fired several nurses for <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-facebook-20100809,0,6713445,ful… pictures of a nearly-decapitated emergency room patient on Facebook</a>.</p>

<p>Q&amp;A with &nbsp;Blythe Bernhard and Jeremy Kohler: Uncovering a teen’s death and a troubled health system</p>