Sarepta Therapeutics could meet its revised outlook following a recent cut in its revenue guidance for Elevidys, Oppenheimer said in a note.
Monday, June 9, 2025
Deflation takes hold in China
China's producer deflation deepened to its worst level in almost two years in May while consumer prices extended declines, as the economy grappled with trade tensions and a prolonged housing downturn.
Uncertainties from a tariff war with the United States and weak consumption at home have rattled sentiment and fuelled expectations of more policy stimulus to combat deflationary pressures.
The producer price index fell 3.3% in May from a year earlier, worse than a 2.7% decline in April and the deepest contraction in 22 months, National Bureau of Statistics data showed on Monday. That compared with an estimated 3.2% fall in a Reuters poll.
"China continues to face persistent deflationary pressure," said Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.
"The price war in the auto sector is another signal of fierce competition driving prices lower. I am also concerned about the property prices which resumed their downward trend in recent months after a period of stabilization," he said.
With households cautious about spending due to income pressures, some companies have resorted to price discounts to boost sales, prompting the authorities to urge an end to the auto industry's bruising price wars.
Cooling factory activity also highlights the impact of U.S. tariffs on the world's largest manufacturing hub, dampening faster services growth as suspense lingers over the outcome of U.S.-China trade talks set to resume in London on Monday.
In a phone call on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping discussed trade tensions and critical minerals, leaving key issues for further negotiations.
The consumer price index dipped 0.1% last month from a year earlier, after falling by the same amount in April and slightly better than a Reuters poll forecast of a 0.2% decline.
CPI slid 0.2% on a monthly basis, compared with a 0.1% increase in April, and matched economists' predictions of a 0.2% decline.
Fragile domestic demand remains a drag on China's economy despite a recent flurry of policy support measures.
Retail sales growth slowed last month as spending continued to lag amid job insecurity and stagnant new home prices.
The core inflation measure, excluding volatile food and fuel prices, registered a 0.6% year-on-year rise, slightly faster than a 0.5% increase in April.
However, Zichun Huang, China Economist at Capital Economics, said the improvement in core prices looks "fragile", adding "we still think persistent overcapacity will keep China in deflation both this year and next."
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-factory-gate-deflation-worst-014054662.html
SCOTUS Rules 9–0 Wisconsin Violated 1st Amendment By Denying Tax Exemption To Catholic Charity
by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 5 ruled unanimously that Wisconsin violated the First Amendment by not granting a Catholic charity an exemption from paying unemployment tax.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the 9–0 opinion in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission.
Catholic Charities Bureau is a nonprofit organization that functions as an arm of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin. The bureau oversees several other entities that render charitable services to communities across the state.
Wisconsin law excuses religious organizations that are “operated, supervised, controlled, or principally supported by a church or convention or association of churches” from paying state unemployment tax.
The petitioner, Catholic Charities, argued that it is unconstitutional to allow the state to decide what work is religious in nature.
“The First Amendment mandates government neutrality between religions and subjects any state-sponsored denominational preference to strict scrutiny. The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s application of [the state statute] imposed a denominational preference by differentiating between religions based on theological lines. Because the law’s application does not survive strict scrutiny, it cannot stand,” the justice wrote.
Strict scrutiny is the highest level of review used by the courts. Under it, the government has to show that a law is narrowly tailored to advance a compelling governmental interest and that the law is the least restrictive way to serve that interest.
Sotomayor wrote that Wisconsin is not the only jurisdiction that exempts religious organizations from paying taxes to cover unemployment compensation programs. Since Congress in 1970 approved the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, which contains language similar to that found in the Wisconsin law, more than 40 states have adopted similarly worded tax exemptions.
The Supreme Court of Wisconsin held 4–3 in March 2024 that Catholic Charities and its four related organizations that serve the developmentally disabled are not “operated primarily for religious purposes,” so they fail to meet the requirements for a tax exemption.
That court held that the activities of Catholic Charities do not qualify as “typical” religious activities because the organization does not “attempt to imbue program participants with the Catholic faith” and because the help it provides to those with mental and developmental disabilities could be carried out by secular organizations.
Sotomayor wrote that this means that the state court held that the organization could only qualify for the tax exemption if, when providing charitable services, it “engaged in proselytization or limited their ... services to fellow Catholics.”
The organization’s Catholic faith prevents it from using charity to proselytize, while many other religious organizations take a different approach, she wrote. This means that Wisconsin’s law on tax exemptions expresses a preference for some religious denominations over others “based on theological choices.”
Because the Wisconsin law distinguishes among religions on the basis of theological distinctions, it imposed “a denominational preference that must satisfy the highest level of judicial scrutiny.”
“Because Wisconsin has transgressed that principle without the tailoring necessary to survive such scrutiny,” the lower court’s decision must be overturned, she wrote.
The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the ruling of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin and sent the case back to that court “for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.”
The attorney for Catholic Charities, Eric Rassbach, hailed the new ruling.
“It was always absurd to claim that Catholic Charities wasn’t religious because it helps everyone, no matter their religion,” Rassbach, vice president and senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, told The Epoch Times.
“Today, the Court resoundingly reaffirmed a fundamental truth of our constitutional order: The First Amendment protects all religious beliefs, not just those the government favors.”
The Epoch Times reached out for comment to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, which represents the Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission. No reply was received by publication time.
'The Self-Diagnosis Epidemic in Teens'
"I was looking for people who had the same viewpoint, politically and socially. I was also looking for queer people online to see their experiences because there weren't many queer people in my high school."
These words from my 20-year-old patient, Alex*, reveal a profound reality: Parents are often unaware of their child's identity exploration happening behind the screen on social media. Alex's 9-year treatment journey illustrates the complex digital landscape our adolescent patients navigate -- largely invisible to both parents and clinicians.
Starting on TikTok at 15 years-old during COVID-era online schooling, what began as boredom for Alex quickly evolved into digital identity exploration. Already diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and social communication disorder, Alex found themselves drawn to neurodiversity content: "Social media did contribute to my concern I had autism. It was a big reason why I wanted to seek out a diagnosis. I noticed that a lot of autistic people on TikTok had similar experiences to me."
Alex's journey -- from online self-diagnosis to professional evaluation to eventually moving beyond rigid categorizations -- illustrates a pattern we're seeing clinically with increasing frequency.
A New Information Source
Social media has become the primary mental health information source for today's youth. Recent studies show TikTok videos about depression and anxiety featuring personal experiences receive significantly higher engagement than content from healthcare professionals, typically showcasing symptoms with minimal mention of professional diagnosis or treatment. In addition, research shows parents have strikingly limited knowledge about their adolescents' digital activities. The gap is widening at an alarming rate as children dive into social media at increasingly younger ages. Today's teens live in a digital world quite separate from their parents' world -- and awareness.
The clinical implications are striking: one small study found that 71% of young patients seeking mental health treatment suspected they had a diagnosis not previously given by a clinician, with 65% indicating social media influenced this belief. In fact, I've previously written about youth in my practice diagnosing themselves with autism based on social media.
The risks of social media-driven self-diagnosis extend beyond simple misinformation. Patients may engage in inappropriate self-treatment based on misdiagnosis, or experience a nocebo effect where expected symptoms begin to manifest simply because they anticipate them. Perhaps most concerning is when young people form their entire identity around a self-diagnosed label, making it psychologically difficult to accept a different professional assessment. Social media's tendency to reduce complex psychiatric conditions to simple symptom checklists can lead patients to miss important nuances, comorbidities, or alternative explanations for their experiences. As clinicians, we must help patients understand that while their distress is real and valid, accurate diagnosis requires comprehensive assessment that considers developmental history, context, and differential diagnoses -- something a TikTok video cannot provide.
The foundation for internet-based self-diagnosis is laid early. Studies show 45% of children are exposed to digital media by their first birthday, and the average age of social media initiation is 12 years old. Most concerning for clinicians: UC San Francisco research revealed 6.3% of adolescents maintain secret social media accounts unknown to parents, with 25% reporting often thinking about social media apps and 17% unable to reduce usage despite attempts.
Clinical Interventions That Work: Direct Patient Interventions
Fortunately, research demonstrates that digital mental health literacy interventions have moderate effects on improving mental health outcomes and large effects on increasing mental health literacy, proving as effective as face-to-face methods.
- Social Media Assessment Protocol: During intake, specifically ask about social media use, self-diagnosis attempts, and content consumption
- Social Media Hygiene Protocol: Implemented in pediatric outpatient settings, this structured approach uses five weekly 1-hour telehealth sessions specifically designed to reduce problematic internet use
- Digital Mental Health Interventions: Delivered through online platforms utilizing cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques, these target anxiety and depression with increased accessibility and acceptability
- Single Session Interventions (SSIs): Focus on promoting insight about social media's effects while enhancing self-efficacy to make positive changes
Clinical Interventions That Work: Working With Parents
Many parents exist in a separate digital world from their children. Clinical guidance should include:
Clinical Social Media Assessment Protocol
Clinicians should tell parents that before discussing social media with their children, they should understand the digital landscape by doing the following (clinicians should do the same):
- Download primary platforms: Install TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to understand patient experiences firsthand
- Create professional observation accounts: Set up basic accounts using professional email addresses
- Research current mental health hashtags: Start with basic terms like #mentalhealth, #anxiety, or #depression in platform search functions
- Explore algorithmic suggestions: Platforms suggest related hashtags -- searching #mentalhealth reveals #mentalhealthawareness, #mentalhealthmatters, enabling comprehensive content mapping
- Monitor trending sections: Use "Trending" or "Explore" pages to identify currently popular mental health content and emerging diagnostic trends
- Utilize hashtag research tools: Websites like best-hashtags.com or top-hashtags.com compile popular hashtags by category for clinical reference
- Follow established organizations: Monitor accounts from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Mental Health America, and other credible sources to understand evidence-based social media messaging
Guiding Parent-Child Digital Literacy Sessions
Recommend parents schedule regular social media review sessions with their adolescents. According to 2022 research, the most popular platforms among teens are YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. Many adolescents resist sharing authentic social media experiences with parents. Suggest families create neutral "dummy accounts" for shared exploration, providing a non-invasive space for digital literacy education while respecting adolescent privacy needs.
Teach parents and teens these critical evaluation frameworks:
Creator Credential Assessment
- Verify licensed mental health professionals (psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists)
- Check qualifications through profile links to professional websites
- Question creators listing only "lived experience" as qualification
Content Quality Evaluation
- Credible content acknowledges complexity and avoids oversimplification
- Quality material addresses both when to seek help and when symptoms might be normative
- Reliable content distinguishes between correlation and causation
Evidence-Based Information Recognition
- Reliable creators reference research or clinical guidelines
- They distinguish between personal opinion and established science
- They acknowledge limitations and ongoing research areas
Red Flag Identification
- Extreme language ("everyone has this" or "doctors don't want you to know")
- Claims of simple self-diagnosis through brief symptom checklists
- Commercial promotion of products/services based on diagnostic claims
- Content increasing anxiety about mental health rather than providing clarity
Information Cross-Referencing
- Compare against established organizations (National Institute of Mental Health, American Psychiatric Association, NAMI)
- Encourage multiple source verification rather than single creator reliance
- Look for consistency across different licensed professionals
Interventions That Work: Professional Social Media Presence
Research has demonstrated that influencer-led interventions on TikTok can significantly increase dissemination of evidence-based mental health content. Mental health professionals should consider creating educational content on platforms where patients spend time, collaborating with trained content creators to produce evidence-based material, and providing clear professional credentials and qualifications in profiles.
The Path Forward
Alex's evolution offers clinical wisdom. Their journey from rigid digital categorization to mature self-understanding -- "It's the pigeonholing I got myself out of at college because I was less interested in labeling myself. I just matured." -- represents the developmental trajectory we hope all patients can achieve.
When they found authentic community in college, diagnostic labels became less important: "By the time I got to college and met people from those communities in person, I was more interested in entertainment value." Eventually, they deleted TikTok entirely: "I noticed it was taking up tons of time that could've been spent doing other things."
This evolution didn't happen through restriction but through real-world connections that provided what digital platforms could not -- authentic community and space for identity development beyond online categories.
Our patients are conducting profound identity work in digital spaces we may never fully understand -- but we cannot afford to remain strangers in their strange land. Every TikTok self-diagnosis, every algorithmic rabbit hole, every secret account represents a young person seeking what we all fundamentally need: to be seen, understood, and validated.
As clinicians, we have a choice: we can continue practicing from the sidelines of their digital lives, or we can enter these spaces with curiosity, competence, and clinical purpose. The question isn't whether social media will continue shaping our patients' mental health -- it's whether we'll be equipped to guide them through it.
*Patient's name has been changed for privacy.
Jonathan Slater, MD, is a clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City, and a senior attending in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Consultation at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital.
Intuitive Surgical cut to Sell by Deutsche Bank
Shares of medical technology company Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) fell 6.2% in the afternoon session after Deutsche Bank cut the stock's rating from Hold to Sell and slashed its price target to $440 from $515, after identifying accelerating competition from lower-cost remanufactured instruments in the Instruments & Accessories segment.
Conversations with multiple robotic-surgery programs suggest a growing shift toward these third-party devices, threatening both Intuitive's market share and margins, and putting up to 46 % of its U.S. I&A revenue at risk. While the bank's model shows little financial drag in 2026, it expects pressure to emerge in 2027 and intensify through 2028.
https://finviz.com/news/76739/why-intuitive-surgical-isrg-shares-are-trading-lower-today
Dr. Oz Must Tackle MA Fraud, One Insurer at a Time
CMS Director Mehmet Oz just directed the agency to double down on auditing Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to root out waste and fraud. In the same week, Senate Republicans signalled the same scrutiny. Americans should be cheering these moves that could keep Medicare sustainable.
For years, lawmakers and agencies like CMS alike have seen evidence that MA plan insurers routinely overcharge the government by billions, leaving the average taxpayer to foot the bill. This fraud is unacceptable – and it’s just for Congress and the Administration to stomp it out.
Starting with this audit, Director Oz ought to send a clear message to insurers that have practiced rampant abuse of taxpayer dollars: We have zero tolerance for fraud, waste, and abuse.
Medicare Advantage, when created, allowed Medicare patients to have a choice of a private coverage option. But the very makeup of these plans invite insurers to game the system.
Private insurers that run MA plans will take any chance they can to increase their margins and bleed Medicare dry. Countless MA insurers charged the government for diagnoses based on shoddy health screening done in-house, according to a 2021 Inspector General’s report. It’s not a new problem, either – MA overbilling goes back to 2012, when CMS found $12 billion of this fraud under the Obama administration.
The fraud has only ballooned since then. Today, MA insurers bill $140 billion in excess of what treatments were required for U.S. patients, according to the Center for Medicare Advocacy. Some health plans over-bill by up to $5,888 per patient for standard treatments.
Should Americans expect this additional cash flow to go to patients? Of course not. Nearly one-third of all American healthcare expenditures go to administrative costs and fees, according to a survey from the Commonwealth Fund. That means more money towards suits and less to the ‘scrubs’ helping the patients.
The government must take a stand against this misuse of funds. CMS Director Oz is starting now. Here’s a few pointed suggestions.
CMS needs to step in at the root of the problem: “Upcoding.” Medicare Advantage patients are diagnosed with more severe conditions than they actually have, if they even have them at all. The result is a much larger check for the insurers running the MA plans, coming right out of the coffers of American taxpayers.
The worst offenses happen outside the doctor’s office. Insurers often send non-physician employees to patients’ homes, administer “Health Risk Assessments”, which results in the upcoding. United Healthcare, who runs more MA plans and who stands accused of upcoding more than any than any other insurer, employs or is associated with 10% of America’s practicing physicians. It’s hard to imagine that this perverse incentive has not been used by United to help their bottom line.
CMS Director Oz should work with lawmakers to bar insurers from upcoding and mandate that actual non-conflicted physicians perform screenings for insurance purposes. These two simple changes could prevent insurers from ripping off the government – and the government can prevent these insurers from mishandling millions of patients’ illnesses.
Dr. Oz would be wise to have CMS broadcast exactly which insurers are responsible for upcoding, so Americans interested in purchasing Medicare Advantage plans can make well informed choices.
Lastly, large insurance company subsidiaries have a history of unfairly clawing back money in the pharmacy space. Any fraudulently collected upcoded money must be clawed back with deserved impunity.
It’s more important than ever to start now. More than 40 million Americans are expected to enroll in MA plans by 2030. Insurers must be thrilled at the growing opportunity to defraud the government, but policymakers are worried. The more seniors and at-risk patients enrolled in MA plans, the more that lawmakers need to control costs without denying care. Banning practices like upcoding and Health Risk Assessments prevent these costs from spiraling.
Director Oz has in the past been an outspoken advocate for Medicare Advantage. Yet while Oz’s opponents called him out for pushing pro-insurance talking points, this audit shows that he’s anything but a shill. Taking MA reforms a step further allows him make good on his promise to “stop unscrupulous people from stealing from vulnerable Americans.” He and CMS as a whole must hold insurers accountable for their actions to make Medicare as solvent as it can be.
Auditing insurers is a great place to start – but it’s only a start. To fully eradicate this waste, fraud, and abuse, CMS needs to back up its words with actions.
Marion Mass, M.D. is a Bucks County pediatrician and the co-founder of the Practicing Physicians of America.
Hospital stocks fall as White House hints open to Medicare cuts
Hospital stocks like UHS, CYH and HCA drop as Medicare funding changes could happen.
https://seekingalpha.com/news/4456580-hospital-stocks-fall-white-house-hints-open-medicare-cuts
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