Viewpoints: America Is Waiting For Trump To Save Lives, Make Safer Gun Laws; Lessons On The Importance Of Doctors Also Being Researchers
Editorial writers weigh in on these public health issues and others.
Los Angeles Times:
President Trump, America Is Still Waiting For Your Improvements To Gun Laws
Two weeks after Donald Trump took the oath of office in January 2017, Briddell Barber, 27, allegedly became upset that another man was driving his girlfriend home from a Super Bowl watching party at a nightclub in Yazoo City, Miss., so he opened fire, killing four men outside the bar. It was the first mass killing — defined as an incident in which at least four people were killed — in the U.S. under the Trump administration, an event for which, of course, the president bears no responsibility. (Scott Martelle, 9/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
Red-Flag Laws Could Stop Suicides
The Extreme Risk Protection Order and Violence Prevention Act may stop some mass shootings, but it could save even more Americans from suicide. Introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio, the legislation would use federal grants to encourage states to implement red-flag laws, as 17 have already done. These laws allow the temporary removal of guns from individuals at imminent risk of harming themselves or others. To qualify for funding under the proposed federal law, states would have to allow a law-enforcement officer or family member of the at-risk person to petition for a court hearing to determine whether gun removal is warranted. (Brian Barnett, 9/23)
The New York Times:
We Need More Doctors Who Are Scientists
About a decade from now, public health statistics will begin to show a substantial decrease in cervical cancer in the United States and other developed countries. That’s because in 2006, young people began receiving vaccines against a sexually transmitted virus, HPV, that causes cervical cancer. By preventing HPV infections today, those vaccines have the potential to avert hundreds of thousands of cervical cancer cases. The HPV vaccine exists because Dr. Douglas Lowy, a physician, and his research collaborator Dr. John Schiller recognized the potential for it after more than a decade studying the family of infectious agents to which HPV belongs. (Mukesh K. Jain, Tadataka Yamada and Robert Lefkowitz, 9/23)
The Washington Post:
Lifting The U.S. Ban On Euthanasia Is Like Opening A Pandora’s Box
Physician-assisted death — euthanasia — is lawful in three European countries, as well as Colombia and Canada. It is illegal, still, in the United States, though physicians in 10 states may supply lethal doses to terminally ill patients for self-administration. And the U.S. ban may not last forever: 72 percent of Americans support euthanasia, according to a May 2018 Gallup poll. For the sake of an undeniably worthy goal, ending avoidable suffering, euthanasia places great confidence and trust in fallible human beings: patients who request it; doctors who carry it out; and institutions, legal and professional, that regulate it. (Charles Lane, 9/23)
Miami Herald:
Public Charge Policy Will Keep Immigrants From Seeking Services
The Department of Homeland Security’s new “public charge” rule already is having concerning repercussions throughout South Florida’s immigrant community. Although the rule becomes effective on Oct. 15, our clients at Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center have begun to share real concerns of fear and backlash for accepting lifesaving and essential services for their children. Marie, who has Temporary Protected Status and is the mother of three U.S.-born children, immediately disenrolled her children from lifesaving programs, including food stamps and Medicaid benefits. (Gepsie M. Metellus and Altanese Phenulus, 9/20)
The Wall Street Journal:
Protecting Unborn Children Is No ‘Cosmic Question’
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg appeals to Scripture to defend his opposition to restrictions on abortion. “There’s a lot of parts of the Bible that talk about how life begins with breath,” he told a radio audience Sept. 5, adding that no matter what anyone thinks about “the kind of cosmic question of where life begins,” it ought to be up to “the woman making the decision.” Mr. Buttigieg’s words evoke rulings by the Supreme Court, which has upheld a sweeping right to abortion since Roe v. Wade in 1973, based on the supposed inexactness of when life begins. Yet with regard to issues other than abortion, many states have passed laws that define life as beginning at conception and treat unborn children as human persons. The Supreme Court has allowed such laws to coexist with Roe, creating a legal landscape in which arguments against restricting abortion look increasingly tenuous. (Clarke D. Forsythe, 9/23)
Columbus Dispatch:
Aging Population Underscores Need To Protect Medicare Home Health
In just a few short months, U.S. Census officials nationwide will start actively collecting data that will help to shape much of the planning and policies to carry us into the next decade. And while there are sure to be some surprising findings, we already have a good idea of what the 2020 census will reveal in terms of Ohio’s aging population. Analyses believe Ohio is on track to have more residents over the age of 60 than under the age of 20. That’s a dramatic change from the 2000 census, when not a single state had an older population that outnumbered its younger one. In 2020, it’s expected that Ohio will be one of 18 states flipping that scenario. (Joe Russell, 9/24)
Georgia Health News:
Congressional Inaction On DSH Program Will Hurt Georgia Hospitals
Though the DSH program is a crucial part of keeping safety-net hospitals open and running, the 116th Congress has neglected to make funding for it a legislative priority. If Congress does not take action soon, $7 billion in cuts to the DSH program will go into effect on Oct. 1. (Bernie Tokarz, 9/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
California’s Hobo Paradise
Democrats blame rising rents for driving people onto the streets. But as a new White House Council of Economic Advisers white paper on homelessness notes, housing costs are swelled by restrictive building codes, zoning, environmental mandates, rent control, cumbersome permitting and labor regulations—in other words, liberal policies. The economists project that homelessness would fall by 54% in San Francisco and 40% in Los Angeles if housing costs approximated production costs more closely as they do in Texas, Florida and Arizona. Yet California’s homeless population is still 2.2 times larger than projected after controlling for poverty, home prices and weather. What gives? (9/23)
