Hawai'i Fires, Rising Inflation, Wegovy Clinical Trial

Hawaii's lieutenant governor says wildfires have now killed at least 36 people and forced thousands to flee.

The fires spread so rapidly some people tried to evade them by leaping into the Pacific Ocean.

I'm Sarah McCammon with Steve Inskeep and this is up first from NPR News.

And the pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk is promoting a popular weight loss medication. Wegovy is said to help with heart disease, too, but it's very expensive, so the company is lobbying Congress to get it covered by Medicare. Why are weight loss drugs currently banned from federal insurance? Stay with us, we've got the news.

The lieutenant governor says at least 36 people are dead from the fast-moving fires on Maui. The town of Lahaina is mostly destroyed and fires continue burning.

Hawaii Public Radio's Bill Dorman comes to us from Honolulu. Hey there, Bill.

Aloha Steve.

Thank you. What does people there think about when they think of the town of Lahaina?

You know, Lahaina is a beautiful spot on the west side of Maui Island. It's tucked between the West Maui mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Right on the water, it's a beautiful place for sunsets, and it's a place of tremendous Hawaiian history. In the early 1800s, it was the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom. A few years after that, it became one of the real centers of Hawaii's whaling industry, which long before tourism was a commercial motor here across Hawaii.

Well, we heard from Sylvia Luke, the lieutenant governor of Hawaii, about that. She toured the area by helicopter.

Homes were destroyed, businesses were destroyed.

It just looked like the whole town dissolved into ashes.

Bill As someone who's been to Lahaina, what goes through your mind when you see these images and videos?

Yeah, heartbreak is a word that's used a lot, but just seeing those pictures of the helicopter, it's devastating, those charred ruins. One of the problems also just in getting precise information really on the extent of that and what that means in human terms. Power and phone service have both been down in West Maui, they're still down landlines and cell phone service.

As of now, what are some of the other numbers that you have that give some shape to this disaster?

Yeah, it's really still developing, but one area that we're turning to now is the people who are leaving Maui. These are visitors, they're tourists, they're also residents there. The Hawaii Convention Center here in Honolulu has been turned into an emergency shelter of sorts. They say they're prepared to handle 2,000, potentially up to 4,000 people if needed. State Transportation director, in that news conference said about 11,000 visitors left Maui Wednesday, some going home, some going elsewhere in the state.

Are people surprised that a wildfire like this would strike in Hawaii?

Hawaii does have wildfires, they're part of the seasonal realities. Here, it gets hurricanes. But that combination is unusual, not unprecedented. It happened on Maui and Oahu in 2018. But that combination is dangerous. Because not just the high winds spreading the flames, but those storms dry out the atmosphere, so that gives the fires more fuel to burn.

Bill Dorman with Hawaii Public Radio Thanks so much for the update.

Thanks, Steve, Aloha.

ALOHA Inflation has been falling steadily over the last year, but that streak appears to have broken.

The Labor Department is set to deliver its cost of living report for the month of July, and forecasters expect it will show inflation heading in the wrong direction.

NPR's Scott Horsley joins us. Whether inflation goes up or down, Scott, Good morning.

Good morning Steve.

So if we get an official increase, what's behind it?

Well, here's math. Prices were flat last July, so any increase in price between June and July this year would raise the annual inflation rate. Energy prices are also a factor. Gasoline prices have been climbing in recent weeks. And while the average gas price is still well below the record $5 mark we saw last summer, pump prices are once again putting upward pressure on inflation. Petroleum analyst Patrick Dahan, who's with GasBuddy, blames production cuts by Saudi Arabia for driving up the price of crude oil. While hotter-than-usual weather on the Gulf Coast made it harder for refineries to turn crude oil into gasoline.

Oil prices finally broke out of their kind of well-established range and didn't get any help by some of the triple-digit temperatures down in Texas and Louisiana, that caused some issues on the refining side.

And that's not the only way sizzling summer weather is hitting people in their pocketbooks. Air conditioning bills are also likely to be higher in many parts of the country. The federal government does offer low-income families some help with their energy costs. But Mark Wolf, who heads an association of state energy assistance officials, says most that money goes to help with heating bills. In the winter, it's not really set up to deal with the growing price of staying cool in the summer.

Scott As you're talking, I'm remembering an event from a couple of days ago. I was driving past a gas station, there was $4.99 a gallon. I said, Hmm, wait a minute. That just seems like from some other time.

Energy prices could well come down this fall. Electricity prices are expected to drop as a result of lower natural gas prices.

That's the other wild card. If we get hit by a hurricane, that could pose problems not only for oil production. At a time that the Saudis are cutting back, think of all those rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. But that also could really hit us on refining, and you can't make up for lost time.

Keep in mind, while gasoline prices do pack a big psychological punch, they're actually a pretty small piece of the overall inflation picture. Gas accounts for less than 3.5 of the consumer price index.

OK, what's happening with the rest of that index?

If you strip out volatile food and fuel prices, so-called core inflation is projected to be about 4.

OK, NPR's Scott Horsley, Thanks so much.

You're welcome.

A drug company has been lobbying Congress to get Medicare to cover its weight loss drugs.

Novo Nordisk makes Wegovy and Ozempic. They're very popular, and aside from weight loss, the company claims they may prevent heart attacks, too. But for many people, the cost of those drugs puts them out of reach. Many insurance plans do not cover them.

Rachana Pradhan from our partner KFF Health News is here to discuss this good morning.

Good to be with you, Steve, thanks.

Why doesn't Medicare cover these drugs?

Well, there is an explicit ban under federal law that says that Medicare's prescription drug benefit cannot cover drugs that are used for weight loss.

I'd like to understand why there would be a ban. Because it does seem obvious for many people in many health situations, that losing some weight will be beneficial for them. So why would the federal law explicitly forbid that kind of drug?

Well, when Medicare's prescription drug benefit was created in 2003, we were living in a different time.

So there was this environment 20 years ago when the law was passed, now things have changed. Or Novo Nordisk would like people to think so anyway. What are they doing to try to get Congress to change this ban so that Medicare would cover drugs?

They are focused on the congressional Black caucus and associations that are kind of affiliated with that caucus of lawmakers. To communicate their message and get allies in their pursuit of this policy goal.

Does this include campaign contributions or what?

Well, certainly. Novo Nordisk and other pharmaceutical companies give campaign cash to lawmakers, regardless of political party. But they oftentimes will sponsor panels, webinars and give to these nonprofits that are associated with these different groups of lawmakers as a way to sort of bolster their advocacy work. If you will.

Is this particularly bad, though? I'm thinking about studies that find that Black Americans do have certain kinds of health problems more often than other people. And that can include problems like heart attacks and strokes and obesity.

For sure, I mean. Based on the body mass index, the BMI, African Americans have the highest rates of obesity in the U.S. And so I think there's a reason why Novo Nordisk would want Black figures to be a part of its messaging on this. And it is true that these drugs really do have significant benefit in that the weight loss experience among patients is very significant. However, as with anything in American medicine, you can't separate costs from the benefits.

Rajna Pradhan of KFF Health News has been covering a lobbying effort by Novo Nordisk for its weight loss drugs. Thanks so much.

Thank you.

And that's up first for this Thursday, August 10th. I'm Steve Inskeep.

And I'm Sarah McCammon Up First is produced by Mansi Khurana, Katie Klein, Claire Murashima and Lily Quiroz. Our editors are Kevin Drew, Raphael Nam, Ali Schweitzer, Alice Wolfley and Diane Weber. Our technical director is Zach Coleman, with engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Join us again tomorrow.

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