Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Air Quality Alerts Trap Western Residents Inside
AP: Choking Air From Western Fires Just Won't Ease Up
Relief from putrid, dangerous air spewing from massive wildfires across the West won’t come until later in the week or beyond, scientists and forecasters say, and the hazy and gunk-filled skies might stick around for even longer. People in Oregon, Washington and parts of California were struggling under acrid yellowish-green smog — the worst, most unhealthy air on the planet according to some measurements. It seeped into homes and businesses, sneaked into cars through air conditioning vents and caused the closure of iconic locations such as Powell’s Books and the Oregon Zoo in Portland, the state’s biggest city. (Cline and Flaccus, 9/15)
The Washington Post: Oregon’s Wildfires Smother Portland Residents In Smoke
It’s been a week since Deborah Stratton breathed clean air. The 54-year-old and her friend evacuated their homes in Estacada, Ore., last week as flames approached. They spent days sleeping in their cars in a Walmart parking lot, using their last $12 on showers at a truck stop. Finally, they found their way here, to a shopping mall about 20 miles away from their town, in a parking lot where a Red Cross volunteer began pitching them a tent. (Schmidt, 9/14)
ABC News: Twin Disasters: How The West Coast Fires Might Impact The COVID-19 Pandemic
As the California wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic rage on in tandem, they may pose a serious double threat. "Now we're battling two public health crises," Panagis Galiatsatos, M.D., M.H.S., a pulmonologist at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and volunteer medical spokesperson for the American Lung Association, told ABC News. (Croll, 9/15)
Also —
KQED: It Was Already Hard, Then It Got Worse: Resources For Coping Right Now
It's been a week. A month. A year. Even before wildfires devastated large parts of our state, we were dealing with a lot. Most notably, a pandemic that continues to kill and sicken thousands nationwide, and that's turned our lives upside down. And now? We get blistering heat, followed by terrifyingly dark, smoky skies and dangerously unhealthy air that's stopping us all from being in the one place that reduces our risk of transmitting COVID-19: Outside. (Severn, 9/11)
