Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
College Football's Season Ends With Potential Superspreader In Alabama
The Washington Post: Hundreds Of Alabama Fans Pack Streets To Celebrate Championship Win, Defying Covid Safety Orders
Hordes of Alabama football fans packed the streets of Tuscaloosa after Monday night’s national championship victory over Ohio State, ignoring pleas from the city’s mayor and university officials. Eyebrow-raising photos and videos showed thousands of people crowding together to celebrate the win in the city’s downtown strip, most of them young and many of them not wearing masks. Some fans “hugged and kissed, with social distancing out the window,” AL.com reported, noting that there was a large police presence in the area but seemingly little enforcement of the statewide mask mandate. (1/12)
Los Angeles Times: Gorillas Contract Coronavirus At San Diego Zoo Safari Park
Multiple gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park have contracted the coronavirus in the first known instances of natural transmission to great apes, the zoo announced Monday. The zoo tested the gorillas’ fecal samples after two of them began coughing Wednesday, the zoo said in a news release. Preliminary results returned Friday showed the animals had tested positive, and U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratories confirmed the results Monday, the zoo said. (Wigglesworth and Wosen, 1/11)
The Wall Street Journal: January Forces Some Schools To Extend Remote Learning, Others To Reopen Classrooms
School districts across the country are changing their plans with the new year, with some deciding to prolong remote instruction and others moving to reopen classrooms. Tenuous schedules are expected to remain fluid as districts weigh rising coronavirus cases in much of the country against concerns about student learning loss and when teachers can be vaccinated. (Calfas, 1/11)
Boston Globe: Day-Care Workers Feel Forgotten In State’s Testing Program
Early childhood education providers are furious after the state announced a new coronavirus testing program last week for public schools without including day-care centers and after-school programs, which are still struggling to serve more than 100,000 children almost a year into the pandemic. On Monday, more than 250 early education and out-of-school providers, advocates, and associations sent a letter to Governor Charlie Baker urging him to include their industry in the testing program. “Clearly, we are not essential enough to benefit from the same health and safety measures meant to protect the lives and wellbeing of our K-12 brothers and sisters who care for the same families that we do,” the letter read. (Krantz, 1/11)
Stat: Add Covid-19 Exposure Apps To Popular Social Media Apps
The beginning of the end of the Covid-19 pandemic may be at hand in the U.S. with the approval and ongoing rollout of vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and by Moderna. Yet it will be months — at the least — before this or other vaccines are available to all. (Ben Alsdurf, 1/12)
The Washington Post: Vitamin D And Covid: Experts Say More Research Needed
Interest in vitamin D supplements has spiked during the pandemic as many people have sought ways to improve their immune health. According to Nielsen data from December, sales for vitamin D supplements increased 41.5 percent year over year. But although more research has emerged suggesting a possible connection between vitamin D deficiencies and cases of covid-19, experts say there is not yet sufficient evidence to support taking supplements to prevent or treat the disease caused by the coronavirus. (Chiu, 1/11)
In other public health news —
AP: Study: Wildfires Produced Up To Half Of Pollution In US West
Wildfire smoke accounted for up to half of all health-damaging small particle air pollution in the western U.S. in recent years as warming temperatures fueled more destructive blazes, according to a study released Monday. Even as pollution emissions declined from other sources including vehicle exhaust and power plants, the amount from fires increased sharply, said researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, San Diego. (Brown, 1/12)
CNN: Rule Cracking Down On Emotional Support Animals Goes Into Effect
A new Department of Transportation regulation goes into effect Monday that says airlines aren't required to treat emotional support animals as service animals. The DOT rule, announced last month, defines a service animal as a dog "trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified individual with a disability." (Hunter and Muntean, 1/11)
KHN: Only A Smokescreen? Big Tobacco Stands Down As Colorado And Oregon Hike Cigarette Taxes
Big Tobacco did something unusual in Marlboro Country last fall: It stood aside while Colorado voters approved the state’s first tobacco tax hike in 16 years. The industry, led by Altria Group, one of the world’s largest tobacco companies, has spent exorbitantly in the past to kill similar state ballot initiatives. In 2018, Altria’s lobbying arm spent more than $17 million to help defeat Montana’s tobacco tax ballot initiative. That same year, it spent around $6 million to help defeat South Dakota’s similar measure. (Ramachandran, 1/12)
