Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
For First Time, 9/11 Ceremony Pays Tribute To As Many As 9,000 People Who Died From Illnesses Since The Attacks
CNN: Why There Will Be A New Moment Of Silence At This Year’s Ground Zero Ceremony
A seventh moment of silence at the September 11 ceremony at Ground Zero will honor those lost to diseases and other health effects from 9/11. Many first responders and survivors say it's a validation they’ve long fought for. (Dominus, 9/10)
U.S. News & World Report: 25 Years Later, Ground Zero's Toxic Legacy Is Still Claiming Lives
Federal data shows deaths from illnesses linked to 9/11 have far surpassed the original attack death toll. Representatives for more than 9,000 people who died after 9/11 have filed claims with the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, and more than 6,000 of those have received compensation so far. (Comen, 9/11)
The Washington Post: Cancer’s Toll On 9/11 Survivors Is Accelerating 25 Years Later
When Mariama James returned to her Lower Manhattan apartment on the evening of Sept. 11, 2001, it was covered in dust. She’d left the windows open that warm day, and the clouds of toxic material released when the twin towers collapsed had rushed in. “Everything was blanketed in white, like after a good snow,” James said. A few years later, James developed skin cancer. In 2013, James’s mother, Juanita, who was on her way to work in the financial district on the morning of the attacks and covered in the dust, was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. She died in 2023. (Wu and Hacker, 9/9)
The New York Times: 9/11’s Dust And Ash Coated Their Childhood. Is It Still Making Them Ill?
Much of the research on exposure to the World Trade Center residue has focused on emergency workers, but people there when they were young say their health is at risk, too. (Goldstein, 9/8)
NBC News: Dementia Is Taking A Toll On Sept. 11 Responders. A Federal Health Program Doesn’t Cover It.
When the World Trade Center Health Program was created in 2011, Stephen Stolarik was among the first to sign up. As a volunteer firefighter, he was at ground zero two days after the attacks, helping with recovery and cleanup efforts. Over the years, the federal program, which gives free healthcare to Sept. 11 responders and survivors, has covered his care for the post-traumatic stress disorder he developed, linked to his time there. (Lovelace Jr., Kopf and Llamas, 9/10)
Medical Xpress: Where 9/11 Responders Live May Influence Frailty, PTSD And Depression Decades Later
Twenty-five years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that environmental conditions where World Trade Center responders live may influence their long-term physical and mental health. Published in Nature Communications, the study found an association between responders exposed to higher temperatures and greater levels of air pollution and an increased risk of frailty, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression as they aged. In contrast, living in greener environments was associated with lower risks of all three conditions. (9/11)
The New York Times: After Causing Delays For 9/11 Health Claims, Social Security Pledges To Do Its Job
A federal fund for those who became sick or died after being exposed to toxic dust from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has been stymied in recent months by the Social Security Administration, which has not turned over key data required to resolve claims, according to lawyers, advocates and officials involved in the work. The reason for the inaction is unclear. But since the start of President Trump’s second term, the administration has made sweeping cuts to the agency, leading to complaints from citizens that basic services are long-delayed or nonexistent. (Barrett, 9/8)
Also —
The Washington Post: They Survived 9/11. Then They Devoted Their Lives To Helping Others.
A group of friends who worked in finance at the World Trade Center changed their lives after the attacks, something psychologists call post-traumatic growth. (Penman, 9/9)
The New York Times: The Man Who Approved 9/11 Victims’ Checks Paid a Price
Kenneth Feinberg says the nearly three years he spent running the Sept. 11 compensation fund changed his life view forever. (Livni, 9/10)
The Washington Post: The Little-Known Tale Behind One Of The Only Planes Allowed To Fly After 9/11
A South Florida man was bitten by a deadly snake. The medicine he needed was in California. (Dennis, 9/8)
Reflections on the crashes of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania and Flight 77 at the Pentagon —
Pennsylvania Capital-Star: Remembering Flight 93 Through The Lens Of Healing
My name may have been on the deed to that land near Shanksville, but the land itself didn’t belong to me anymore. It belonged to the grieving families and would need to be protected and preserved. What I really had no way of knowing was that the backbone of my work would be about healing. (Tim Lambert, 9/9)
The New York Times: My Dad Died On Flight 93. I Miss The Way America Responded.
As we mark 25 years, I find myself grappling with a different kind of grief — not for my father, but for the country we shared in his memory. We often treat our current polarization as an inescapable reality of modern democracy. But having lived through the profound solidarity of September 2001, I know that our capacity for connection runs much deeper than our propensity for division. We cannot, and should not, wait for another national tragedy to remind us of who we are to one another. (Charlie Greene, 9/9)
Pasadena Star News: 25 Years After 9/11, A Southern California Doctor’s Legacy Lives On
You can find three places at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank where the memory of Dr. Yeneneh Betru is enshrined: a framed collage along a ground-floor wall contains photos of the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, where Betru’s name is inscribed on a bench; a somber-faced bas-relief portrait hangs outside the center’s Intensive Care Unit; and a crape myrtle tree in front of the hospital was planted in his honor a year after the worst terrorist attacks in U.S history killed 2,977. And Betru is there in Dr. Steven Taback’s memories, too. (Rivera, 9/10)
TSA announces changes to its airport security policies —
The New York Times: TSA May Allow Passengers With PreCheck To Bring Water Through Checkpoints
T.S.A. PreCheck members may soon be able to bring larger bottles of water through security at select airports, in a major shift to longstanding rules. The T.S.A. restricted the amount of liquids passengers could carry on after a foiled plot to blow up planes over the Atlantic Ocean using liquids in drink bottles.(Castro-Root and Chung, 9/10)
The Washington Post: TSA To Allow Gate Access Without Tickets At Some Airports
The Transportation Security Administration said it was offering gate access to people without plane tickets as an “exclusive benefit” to “our most trusted travelers,” meaning PreCheck members and people with Known Traveler Numbers, which are issued to travelers approved for expedited security screening. Gate access was restricted after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. (Walsh, 9/9)
