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With help from Carmen Paun and Megan R. Wilson

MEXICO’S REBUTTAL ON FENTANYL — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador harshly criticized Republican lawmakers introducing legislation to authorize the use of military force against Mexican drug cartels in an attempt to stem the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., Carmen reports.

“It’s very irresponsible for these lawmakers that, for propagandistic purposes — because it’s worrisome what’s happening in the U.S., because many young people are losing their lives due to fentanyl — but it’s scummy to use that to say that Mexico is guilty,” López Obrador told reporters Thursday.

Why it matters: The U.S.’ growing number of drug overdoses has quickly become a leading public health policy issue for lawmakers at the state and federal levels. More than 100,000 overdose deaths in 2021 — largely driven up by fentanyl overdoses — and over $100 billion in annual costs from opioid abuse have left the U.S. searching for policy solutions, including those that might address the problem’s global nature.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said last week he wanted to introduce legislation authorizing the U.S. president to use military force to destroy fentanyl-producing labs in Mexico. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) has already done so in the House.

Without referring to them by name, the Mexican president Thursday called the lawmakers “bullies” and accused them of lacking principles.

López Obrador nonetheless said he will continue cooperating with the U.S. on the issue because he wants to help.

He also praised President Joe Biden for treating Mexico with respect and signing an executive order this week aimed at expanding background checks on prospective gun buyers. López Obrador said that 80 percent of the guns used by gangs in Mexico come from the United States.

The Mexican president also took aim at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which ousted its Mexico chief over improper contact with lawyers of drug traffickers. “They fired him, and that’s the last thing we heard about it,” he said.

Where fentanyl comes from: The fentanyl pills Mexican authorities have seized when dismantling labs are usually blue, while in the U.S., they’re all colors, López Obrador said. That’s proof to him that many of those pills enter the U.S. directly from other countries, not just via Mexico.

Replacing fentanyl: López Obrador said Mexican scientists are looking into a possible replacement of fentanyl as a pain reliever for people who really need it so the drug can be banned.

What the U.S. should do to fight fentanyl deaths: Take care of its youth, in the Mexican president’s view.

“I believe they turn to drugs because they’re not satisfied, they’re unhappy, they’re alone, they’re missing love,” López Obrador said. He praised Mexican culture in which young people live with their parents longer than in the U.S. and suggested that American parents keep their kids at home longer and not expect them to move out at 18.

WELCOME TO FRIDAY PULSE. Dizzy apes could be key in understanding how altered mental states affected the origins of the human mind, researchers believe. One way to study primates deliberately spinning? Having researchers try to spin themselves at the same speed, apparently.

What future research will shake up health policy? Let us know at [email protected] and [email protected].

TODAY ON OUR PULSE CHECK PODCAST, host Alice Miranda Ollstein talks with Ben Leonard about the mistake-ridden electronic health records system at VA medical centers and Sen. Jon Tester’s (D-Mont.) push to fix them, including renegotiating its contract with Oracle Cerner, the vendor that manages them.

FIRST IN PULSE: ILLUMINA EXPANDING IN D.C. — Illumina, the leading maker of gene-sequencing machines, is bringing on Nick Magallanes to lead its Washington, D.C., office. Magallanes, who’s coming from Iovance Biotherapeutics, declined to comment, but a farewell email that landed in Megan’s inbox says he starts on Monday.

As head of government affairs for the Americas, he’ll lead the company’s domestic lobbying operation and its work in Canada and Latin America.

Illumina has “a strategic plan to grow our Washington footprint as we increase our work around the clinical application of genomics,” company spokesperson David McAlpine told Megan, confirming the hire.

— It’s a significant step for the rapidly expanding company, which has been fending off U.S. and international regulators concerned about its acquisition of biotech company Grail and now finds itself in a proxy battle with activist investor Carl Icahn, who urged Illumina to divest it. Illumina spent about $6 million on lobbying the federal government last year, nearly double the $3.3 million it spent on advocacy in 2021.

Magallanes will serve under Illumina’s lone in-house lobbyist, Brian Toohey, vice president of global government affairs and public policy. The two previously worked together at PhRMA, the drugmakers’ top industry group.

COVID’S NEW NICKNAMES — Gone are the days when new Covid variants were distinguished by a mix of numbers, periods and letters, POLITICO’s Carmen Paun reports.

The WHO announced Thursday that it changed how it will classify future descendants of the coronavirus Omicron variant that South African scientists first discovered in fall 2021.

New subvariants won’t get new names unless they pose a significant public health risk — in which case, they’ll get a Greek-letter name.

WE HAVE A DEAL — The National Health Service unions in England announced a pay deal with the government Thursday, a possible way out of strikes that have stretched the system, POLITICO’s Dan Bloom reports.

The deal will go to union members for approval.

It could be a turning point for a key health workforce salary dispute that’s common in many countries, including the U.S.

STOP THOSE VAPES — Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) urged the FDA and the DOJ to better coordinate their efforts to stop unauthorized vapes from entering the market, POLITICO’s Katherine Ellen Foley reports.

Durbin has long advocated for keeping vapes out of the hands of kids.

“Every single day in America, children pick up vaping with unauthorized products that are on store shelves only because FDA has seemingly granted these illegal e-cigarettes a free pass,” he wrote. “I write to express my concern that the Biden Administration has not taken more aggressive enforcement action to stop thousands of illegal e-cigarettes from flooding the market and addicting children.”

WAITING FOR THE AVIAN FLU SHOT — Avian flu may be ripping through the country’s poultry flocks, but a vaccine to stop the spread is a long way away, POLITICO’s Marcia Brown reports.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told senators Thursday that there’s currently no vaccine for the current strain of the virus, though a number are in development.

NURSING HOME STAFFING STANDARDS — More than 100 House Democrats have urged CMS to enact “robust” staffing standards to ensure quality care.

The group focused on the 2024 Medicare payment rule for a new policy, which would include hourly and patient-per-day minimums should the representatives get their way.

Staffing standards have been a point of contention between regulators and the long-term care industry, with nursing homes saying the health workforce isn’t adequate to meet some proposed standards.

DOCS GO TO DHS — Several medical groups sent a letter Thursday to the Department of Homeland Security asking the agency to stop detaining families in Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities.

Citing their expertise in children’s mental health, the groups of medical experts — including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Physicians — told the Biden administration its current practice of holding kids was harming the health of children coming to the U.S.

“Immigrant children seeking safe haven in the United States should never be placed in ICE detention facilities,” they wrote. “There is no evidence that any amount of time in detention is safe for children and detention itself poses a threat to child health.”

HOW COVID CHANGED EMERGENCY POWERS — A new report in the Journal of Emergency Management found that governors’ emergency powers changed in the wake of the pandemic — with some getting more power and others having power taken from their offices.

The article, by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, the CDC and the National Governors Association, found activists and policymakers made efforts through 2020 and 2021 to limit emergency powers after they were used in response to the pandemic.

But some states used Covid-19 as an opportunity to expand emergency powers, the report found, including enhanced executive powers to boost vaccination rates and take public health action more quickly.

Olivia Coleman is now press secretary for the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. She previously was deputy press secretary for Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).

The Atlantic reports on the strongest evidence yet that an animal started the pandemic.

Vox reports that the sole U.S. supplier of a major abortion drug says it won’t supply the pill in 31 states.

The Washington Post reports on the Florida law that could lead to kids showing mental health struggles being detained.