Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
CDC Issues Dire Warning After Several Deaths: Do Not Drink Hand Sanitizer
CNN: People Are Dying After Drinking Hand Sanitizer, CDC Says
People are getting sick and even dying after swallowing hand sanitizer, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. Four died and others have suffered impaired vision or seizures, the CDC says. Hand sanitizer is everywhere and is useful for cleaning the hands during the coronavirus pandemic. But it's not safe to swallow, the CDC cautions. "Alcohol-based hand sanitizer products should never be ingested," the CDC said in a new report. (Howard, 8/5)
The New York Times: C.D.C. Warns Of The Dangers Of Drinking Hand Sanitizer After Fatal Poisonings
From May 1 to June 30, 15 people in Arizona and New Mexico were treated for poisoning after they swallowed alcohol-based hand sanitizer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Three of the patients sustained visual impairments, according to the C.D.C., which said that drinking hand sanitizer can cause methanol poisoning. Methanol is a type of alcohol commonly found in fuel products, antifreeze, industrial solvents and in some preparations of hand sanitizer that federal health officials said is harmful and should not be used. (Vigdor, 8/5)
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USA Today: Some Hospital Infections Up As Feds Waived Safety Oversight, Reporting
When the Trump administration waived most federal hospital inspections and suspended hospital infection reporting in March during the coronavirus pandemic, patient safety advocates warned it could lead to big increases in hospital-acquired infections. Jumps in infections at two hospitals in New York and St. Louis – up to five times higher – suggest they may have been right. (O'Donnell, 8/5)
CNN: Best Friends, Married For 35 Years, Die From Coronavirus Just 11 Days Apart
Keith and Gwendolyn Robinson, of California, were just like Noah and Allie from the famous Nicholas Sparks romance novel-turned-movie "The Notebook," according to their son. The only difference is they didn't pass away in the same bed while holding hands, Delon Adams told CNN, referring to the last few minutes of the 2004 romantic drama. The Robinsons, who were married 35 years, died 11 days apart after battling coronavirus. (Johnson, 8/5)
Politico: The Summer Of Spread Is Here
New Jersey went from being one of the country’s worst Covid-19 hot spots to a model of how to flatten the curve. Now, two months into the first summer of the pandemic, it’s backsliding. New cases are way up and the state's rate of spread nearly doubled in the past four weeks as keggers, house parties and packed-to-the-gills vacation rentals became infection hubs. (Sutton and Ehley, 8/5)
The Atlantic: The Pandemic Could Be Worse In The Winter Of 2020-21
Throughout the pandemic, one lodestar of public-health advice has come down to three words: Do things outside. For nearly five months now, the outdoors has served as a vital social release valve—a space where people can still eat, drink, relax, exercise, and worship together in relative safety. Later this year, that precious space will become far less welcoming in much of the U.S. “What do you do when nobody wants to go to the beach on some cold November day?” Andrew Noymer, a public-health professor at UC Irvine, said to me. “People are going to want to go to bowling alleys and whatnot, and that’s a recipe for disaster, honestly—particularly if they don't want to wear masks.” (Pinsker, 8/5)
The New York Times: The Many Symptoms Of Covid-19
For a Texas nurse, the first sign that something was wrong happened while brushing her teeth — she couldn’t taste her toothpaste. For a Georgia attorney, it was hitting a wall of fatigue on a normally easy run. When a Wisconsin professor fell ill in June, he thought a bad meal had upset his stomach. But eventually, all of these people discovered that their manifold symptoms were all signs of Covid-19. Some of the common symptoms — a dry cough, a headache — can start so mildly they are at first mistaken for allergies or a cold. In other cases, the symptoms are so unusual — strange leg pain, a rash or dizziness — that patients and even their doctors don’t think Covid-19 could be the culprit. (Parker-Pope, 8/5)
The Washington Post: Struggling U.S. Manufacturers Pivot To One Product Where Sales Are Actually Booming: Masks
For nearly a century, Steele Canvas has been churning out industrial goods from its workshops near Boston, lately housed in a brick factory in Chelsea, Mass. The family-owned manufacturer built a booming business making canvas-and-steel storage carts that customers use to stash tools, construction materials and other wares. As the economy started locking down in March, those orders dried up, pushing the company toward crisis and forcing it to consider furloughing its 70 employees. But then it found a way out — making masks. (Whalen, 8/5)
