Viewpoints: Is Hepatitis In Children Being Caused By Covid?; Who Should Be Prescribed Paxlovid?
Opinion writers examine covid and abortion.
Bloomberg:
Is Covid Linked To Rising Hepatitis Cases Among Kids?
Over the past month, the UK, U.S. and other countries have reported increasing cases of acute hepatitis, or inflammation of the liver, in otherwise healthy children, some as young as one month old. Some have required liver transplants and at least one death has been reported. (Therese Raphael and Sam Fazeli, 5/18)
Stat:
Does Paxlovid Work In People Vaccinated Against Covid-19?
As a primary care doctor in New York City, I am grateful to drug companies for providing effective Covid-19 therapies for my patients. But I am also frustrated that these companies appear to be completely running the show, and believe that Americans could get more from Big Pharma if only our regulators dared to ask for it. This dynamic is on display with Paxlovid, which was approved based on a study that seems designed to exaggerate the benefit most Americans can expect from this drug rather than provide us with relevant information about it. (Paul Fenyves, 5/18)
Miami Herald:
COVID-19 Made Teen Suicide Trends Worse
It’s expected that, after two years of multiple disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, there would be repercussions on our collective mental health. As recent research has shown, it is heavily impacting children and teens. Since 2009, rates of suicide among youth and young adults have been on the rise. Depression, hopelessness and suicide ideation among them are alarmingly widespread, a trend challenging families across the country, including in Miami-Dade County and the Keys. (Kathy Coppola and Susan Racher, 5/16)
On abortion —
The Boston Globe:
Abortion Rights Are Protected In Massachusetts — Or So We Thought
We were smug. We thought that the right to choose abortion was protected in Massachusetts no matter what the US Supreme Court did. The Supreme Judicial Court, the state’s highest court, said as much. In the 1981 case Moe v. Secretary of Administration and Finance, the SJC held that the right to choose abortion was protected under the Massachusetts Constitution. We represented the plaintiffs, indigent women who needed abortions because pregnancy posed substantial risks to their health and who relied on public funds for their care. You had a right to abortion, the US Supreme Court said, but the federal government didn’t have to pay for it. In a 6-1 decision, with justices selected by Republican and Democratic governors, the SJC disagreed: The Commonwealth had to fund medically necessary abortions, even if the federal government did not. (Nancy Gertner and John Reinstein, 5/17)
Scientific American:
How Medication Abortion With RU-486/Mifepristone Works
In 2016 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a two-drug combination of Mifeprex (also called RU-486 or mifepristone) and Cytotec (commonly known as misoprostol) to induce abortion without surgery. In 2019 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that approximately 42 percent of all abortions in the U.S. were medication-based. (Megha Satyanarayana, 5/17)
Bloomberg:
Making Abortion Pills Illegal Doesn't Stop Women From Getting Them
If the US Supreme Court overturns the five-decade-old constitutional right to abortion, as expected, many women will find it far harder to end an unwanted pregnancy. But this won’t be a return to pre-1973, largely thanks to changes to medical technology. Abortion pills, often taken at home, are already making the reality of abortion easier and safer in the early stages of gestation. And even with inevitable new restrictions, they are set to change the political fight too. (Clara Ferreira Marques, 5/17)
