Some argue a need for more potent — and pricier — overdose reversal drugs; others frame that effort as drugmakers peddling fear. The wrong choice could cost lives.
Robin Erb
Robin Erb covers a range of health issues in Michigan, including the industry of aging and the issues facing older residents in Michigan, a state that is aging faster than most others. She joined Bridge in 2019 and has led investigations that tracked millions of dollars in opioid settlement money and explored severe worker shortages in health care that threaten lives and the state's economy. She chronicled the shock and grief of Michigan families in COVID’s wake, as well as state policy decisions and the triumphs of medical breakthroughs. Robin previously spent six years covering health at the Detroit Free Press, documenting the battle over, and the eventual passage of, the Affordable Care Act and Michigan's Medicaid expansion. She studied communications and political science at Miami University and has a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Lourdes University (Toledo, Ohio). She and her husband raised two wonderful children — but have failed miserably at training their Beagle-Bassets — in southeast Michigan. Reach her at rerb@bridgemi.com.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Mpox back in Michigan, though numbers are lower than 2022 outbreak
Since February, health officials say they’ve detected 16 new cases of mpox, an infection primarily found among men having sex with other men. Just four cases were reported last year.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Michigan’s fifth measles case found in Detroit. Others potentially exposed
A child in Detroit has measles and may have exposed others to the highly contagious virus, according to health officials. It’s the fifth known case this year in Michigan, which had gone four years without.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Eclipse blocks sun, brings out smiles from Michigan to Ohio
Michigan welcomed a total solar eclipse to a tiny sliver of the state in Luna Pier Monday but thousands of others drove to Ohio and beyond to witness the last total solar eclipse that many will see for 20 years, turning highway traffic to a standstill.
Posted inMichigan Government
Trump says states should decide abortion. Michigan voters have: What law says
Former President Donald Trump has been pressured to push for a national ban on abortion. He declined to do so Monday, frustrating abortion opponents.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
In traveling RV, Michigan nurse tries to undo opioid damage she helped cause
Michigan nurse Jordana Latozas began her career writing prescriptions for pain pills in “a different world.” Fourteen years later, she said, she’s trying to right the wrong that those pills caused.
Posted inBusiness Watch
U-M Health preps major metro Detroit expansion with Kmart site buy
The $4.2 million deal gives U-M a prominent location for its deeper expansion into metro Detroit as the health system plots statewide growth.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
ACLU calls for ending Michigan parental-consent law for underage abortions
A new report by the American Civil Liberties Union and others used court data and interviews with sexual-health advocates, attorneys and providers to examine Michigan’s 1991 law requiring parental consent for abortions
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Fighting Michigan's opioid crisis with new needles, purer drugs, respect for addicts
Harm reduction is more than needle exchanges. At Grand Rapids-based Red Project, users can ask to have their drugs checked for additives, allowing the user to decide whether to discard or use them.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Supreme Court abortion pill case ‘terrifying’ for Michigan women, Nessel says
Michigan voters in 2022 guaranteed abortion access in the state constitution, but a case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court could sharply restrict who gets the abortion pill. Attorney General Dan Nessel calls that a “terrifying” prospect.
