Viewpoints: Policy Lessons On A Vaccine Rollout; Pros, Cons Of Trump’s COVID Treatments

Bloomberg: A Covid-19 Vaccine Faces Major Policy Hurdles
Amid the tragedy of the pandemic, one marvel is hiding in plain sight. The development of a working vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 is happening at breakneck speed, a triumph of ingenuity and efficiency that has few precedents. However, even if researchers and pharmaceutical companies succeed on the scientific front, policy makers will then have to pick up the baton. Unfortunately, if the poor management of the pandemic in Europe and the U.S. is any guidance, the potential for policy failure is enormous. (Ferdinando Giugliano, 11/2)

Stat: Potentially Worrisome Spike In Off-Label Dexamethasone Prescribing 
Dexamethasone, a potent steroid medication, is in the news as a possible treatment for people with Covid-19. A June 2020 press release for the UK-based RECOVERY clinical trial announced that dexamethasone reduced the risk of death in hospitalized Covid-19 patients who needed mechanical ventilation or additional oxygen. The following month, results of the trial were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Kao-Ping Chua, Adam Cifu and Rena M. Conti, 11/2)

The Wall Street Journal: How Congress Can Get Kids Back To Class
The U.K., France and other European countries are closing businesses in another wave of lock downs, as Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations rise. But unlike in the spring, schools are open. Infections are also surging across the U.S., where in many places in-person classrooms are closed and distance learning has become the norm. But there’s growing evidence schools can open safely, with reasonable precautions and, perhaps soon, regular testing. (Scott Gottlieb and Mark McClellan, 11/1)

Bloomberg: Coronavirus Pandemic Can Be Controlled With Mask Wearing
“We are not going to control the pandemic,” the White House chief of staff said last weekend, admitting the Donald Trump administration’s failure to perform its most urgent job. This is timely, relevant information for Americans now going to the polls. But it’s also terribly dangerous thinking. Even as the country waits to find out if there will be a change in leadership, the U.S. government can’t simply give up trying to control Covid-19; far too many lives and livelihoods are at stake. Without strenuous efforts to monitor outbreaks by testing and tracing, and leadership to persuade people to take basic protective measures — covering their faces, keeping their distance from others, washing their hands — all countries may soon face a “tsunami of cases,” as a World Health Organization official put it, that will overwhelm health-care systems. (10/30)

Modern Healthcare: Employers And Providers Need A New Dialogue To Help Fix Healthcare
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the healthcare system as we know it, laying bare the troublesome consequences of our ongoing struggle to deliver equitable, patient-centered, value-based care to all Americans. Fortunately, there are a few bright spots—the rapid expansion of telehealth technology, for example, has dramatically increased access to care in convenient, patient-friendly ways. And a new, unconventional alliance between employers and healthcare systems could help to accelerate more solutions for our long-standing challenges with care coordination and value-based care. (Laura Fegraus, 10/30)

Modern Healthcare: Modernizing The Federal Anti-Kickback Statute Is Long Overdue And Will Improve Patient Care
In the face of the worst pandemic in memory, we’ve seen heroes emerge in hospitals, doctors’ offices and across the healthcare industry. It has become clear that patients rely on more than just their primary physician to receive the care they need, with many others, including the medical technology industry, playing a pivotal role in patient health. Unfortunately, a law written back in the 1970s—the federal Anti-Kickback Statute—today deters coordination among healthcare providers, and between providers and medtech companies, that would achieve better and lower-cost outcomes for patients. (Scott Whitaker, 10/31)

The New York Times: Our Most Dangerous Weeks Are Ahead
The weeks following the election could very well be the most dangerous weeks in this country since the Civil War. If Donald Trump should lose, he may well not concede. And he will still be president, with all the power that bestows. His supporters will likely be seething, thinking that the election has been stolen. These are seeds he has been sowing for months. Trump will have command of the military, the Justice Department and part of the intelligence apparatus. (Charles M. Blow, 11/1)

Des Moines Register: Women's Rights In Iowa: Court Shift Puts Onus On Elected Officials
We can no longer count on the courts in Iowa and federally to protect our fundamental rights. The future of our ability to make decisions about our bodies and access critical reproductive health care is at the ballot box. We must vote to elect leaders at all levels of government who will start rebuilding our state’s reproductive health care system and protect Iowans’ fundamental rights for generations to come. (Erin Davison-Rippey, 10/31)

Des Moines Register: Trump's Big, Beautiful Health Insurance Plan Does Not Exist
No plan has been unveiled, which is a recurring theme from the GOP. Republicans in Congress had majorities for over half of the Bush administration to offer a proposal to provide health insurance to Americans. They had a decade after Obamacare was enacted to roll out a different proposal. What Americans heard: crickets. (10/30)

The Oklahoman: Openness Important With Oklahoma Vaccine Plan
Oklahoma’s plan for distributing a COVID-19 vaccine, once one becomes available, includes many facets. Foremost among them may be the Health Department’s focus, especially early in the process, on explaining who is getting the vaccine and why. The plan, recently submitted to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, calls for distributing the vaccine in four phases tied to availability. First in line will be employees of nursing homes and long-term care facilities, followed by front-line public health workers and those caring directly for sick COVID-19 patients. (11/1)

Stat: The Quiet Pandemic Caused By Consuming Too Much Salt 
The deadly coronavirus pandemic has, appropriately, captured much of the public’s attention. But we should not forget other long-standing pandemics, such as those caused by opioids, alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, and salt. Salt? Diets heavy in salt can raise blood pressure and increase the risk of non-fatal and fatal heart attacks and strokes. And the magnitude of that harm puts salt among the major killers in the United States and many other countries. (Michael F. Jacobson, 11/2)