Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Despite Warnings About Health Risks Of Youth Tackle Football, New Leagues Emerge In Texas Town
The New York Times: A Small Town Gave Up Tackle Football. It Came Storming Back.
One evening last spring, a retired doctor named James Harris carried a pickle jar filled with bright red Jell-O to Marshall’s school board meeting. He shook it up so the Jell-O sloshed against the glass, a representation, he told the school board members, of what happens to the brain during a hard hit in football and what can happen to those who are allowed to play the sport at a young age. “The brain is like this Jell-O in the bottle,” he told them. “When the head hits the ground, it hits front and back, and swishes, twists, sloshes and stretches inside the skull.” (Belson, 11/16)
The Washington Post: Study Finds Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s World Mercury Project And Larry Cook’s Stop Mandatory Vaccinations Bought 54 Percent Of The Ads
The majority of Facebook advertisements spreading misinformation about vaccines were funded by two anti-vaccine groups, including one led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to a study published this week. The World Mercury Project, headed by Kennedy, and a California-based organization called Stop Mandatory Vaccination bought 54 percent of the anti-vaccine ads on Facebook, the study found. (Sun, 11/15)
The New York Times: Prison’s Tips For Inmates In Solitary: ‘Plant A Tree’ Or ‘Go On A Picnic’
As Joey Pedersen made his way to solitary confinement last month, Washington State prison officers handed him a roll of toilet paper, a bar of soap and a pack of documents including a flier titled “101 Ways to Relieve Stress.” He reviewed the suggestions in his new cell, where he would spend 23 hours a day alone. “Plant a tree.” “Go on a picnic.” “Put air freshener in your car.” “Avoid negative people.” “Relax,” the document concluded, “you have the rest of your life.” (Baker, 11/16)
The Washington Post: When Undergoing Chemo Or Radiation, Cancer Patients Need To Avoid Diseases. CDC Provides Vital Tips.
About 650,000 cancer patients receive outpatient chemotherapy every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although chemo and radiation can extend cancer patients’ lives and help stamp out the disease, the treatments can put their lives at risk. Chemo and radiation kill cancer cells, but they can also wipe out patients’ immunity. As a result, even seemingly benign infections can become threats to people being treated for cancer. (Blakemore, 11/16)
Stat: A Controversial New Treatment Promises To Make Little People Taller
Scientists have come up with a drug, injected once a day, that appears to make children’s bones grow. To many, it’s a wondrous invention that could improve the lives of thousands of people with dwarfism. To others, it’s a profit-driven solution in search of a problem, one that could unravel decades of hard-won respect for an entire community. In the middle are families, doctors, and a pharmaceutical company, all dealing with a philosophically fraught question: Is it ethical to make a little person taller? (Garde, 11/18)
The Wall Street Journal: What Science Tells Us About Preventing Dementia
When it comes to battling dementia, the unfortunate news is this: Medications have proven ineffective at curing or stopping the disease and its most common form, Alzheimer’s disease. But that isn’t the end of the story. According to a recent wave of scientific studies, we have more control over our cognitive health than is commonly known. We just have to take certain steps—ideally, early and often—to live a healthier lifestyle. (Tergesen, 11/17)
The Washington Post: Bittersweet Photos Of How Dementia Tests An Elderly Couple's Bond
Sofie Mathiassen’s grandparents — Poul and Else — always kept a journal, jotting down in a sentence or two — sometimes more — the small joys of each of their days together. Eight years ago, Poul was diagnosed with dementia and Parkinson’s disease, and, for the past four years, their granddaughter has been photographing their daily lives in Denmark, creating a record of Poul’s last moments on earth. The work has won the Bob and Diane Fund grant, a cash prize dedicated to raising awareness through photography of the medical crisis around Alzheimer’s and dementia. (Laurent and Mathiassen, 11/17)
The Wall Street Journal: Urinary Incontinence Is Common, Often Treatable—But Hard To Discuss
If the many health issues that come with aging, one of the most vexing is also among the hardest to talk about, even with a doctor: a troublesome bladder. Now, researchers and doctors are mounting new efforts to erase the stigma, inform patients about the best treatment options—and prevent problems from starting in the first place by promoting better bladder health. (Landro, 11/17)
The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Struggles To Stem Chinese Efforts To Recruit Scientists
National security officials say universities are at the leading edge of a plan by Beijing to illicitly gain scientific expertise and leapfrog the technology gap with the West, but prosecutors face challenges proving wrongdoing in court, as new allegations in a criminal case in Kansas underscore. The Chinese government pays thousands of scientists around the world to moonlight at Chinese institutions through arrangements where they often spend months in China without disclosing the work to their primary employers, officials say. (Viswanatha and O'Keeffe, 11/17)
Reveal: Development Arrested
A mom gets word that her seventh-grade son has gotten into trouble, but she doesn’t know what kind. By the time she shows up, police already have questioned him and sent him to the county jail. Her 13-year-old is being charged as an adult. (Bragg, 11/16)
The Washington Post: Suffering From Bad Knees, Some Look For Alternatives To Surgery
The burning in his kneecaps was what Richard Bedard noticed first. Then came the tenderness and pain. Sitting for 10 hours a day as a financial editor in Hong Kong was agonizing. So was walking short distances or just standing in the elevator. Neither doctors nor physical therapists could offer any lasting relief. Surgery loomed. But Bedard tried a different approach: a personal experiment to try to repair the cartilage in his knees with special exercises. It wasn’t easy and it took more than a year to accomplish, but he sidestepped a knee operation. (Squires, 11/17)
The Washington Post: Doctor Implicit Bias Can Lead To Misdiagnoses
Doctors, like the rest of us, make mistakes. Every year, upward of 12 million Americans see a physician and come away with a wrong diagnosis. The top cause? Bad judgment, says David Newman-Toker, director of the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality’s Center for Diagnostic Excellence. Newman-Toker found that judgment errors accounted for 86 percent of 55,377 medical malpractice claims he evaluated where misdiagnosis led to death or disability. (Glicksman, 11/17)
