Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Endometriosis Must Be Diagnosed Earlier; Health Fallout Of Microaggressions
NBC News: Endometriosis Affects 1 Out Of 10 Women Like Me. Yet It Often Takes A Decade To Get Diagnosed.
My life can be divided into distinct halves: the time I am not in pain and the time I am. From the outside, I seem to be always breezy, a glass of wine in hand, celebrating with friends, traveling around the world (in pre-pandemic times), all while executive producing a national news show. And those things do happen. But what most people who see me don't know is that they mostly happen while I am in some level of pain. (Lauren Peikoff, 3/31)
Scientific American: Microaggressions: Death By A Thousand Cuts
Microaggressions are the everyday slights, insults, putdowns, invalidations and offensive behaviors that people of marginalized groups experience in daily interactions with generally well-intentioned people who may be unaware of their impact. Microaggressions are reflections of implicit bias or prejudicial beliefs and attitudes outside the level of conscious awareness. Social psychologists have studied implicit bias for decades, along with the role they play in human behavior. Almost any marginalized group can be the object of microaggressions. There are racial, gender, LGBTQ and disability microaggressions that occur daily to these groups. (Derald Wing Sue, 3/30)
The Baltimore Sun: Data Disaggregation Shows Startling Health Disparities Among Asian Americans
With the recent rise in anti-Asian violence and the tragic shootings in Atlanta, there has been an increased focus on individual and institutional racism toward Asian Americans. Our experience as Asian American medical students has revealed another issue that has received little attention: Asian American health disparities are hardly covered in medical education. This makes us wonder: Does anyone care about the health of the communities that we grew up in? (Thomas Le and Emma Zeng, 3/31)
Stat: On Caregiving And Dementia: Q&A With A Caregiver And A Physician
In his recent First Opinion, “The long, exhausting reach of dementia care,” Jason Karlawish, a geriatric physician and co-director of the Penn Memory Center, wrote about how the coronavirus pandemic has led more Americans to realize how all-consuming life as a full-time caretaker can be. As many spouses and adult children of Alzheimer’s patients have long known, it’s often an isolating, arduous, and expensive experience. To learn more about the implications of dementia, both individual and systemic, STAT’s Patrick Skerrett spoke with Karlawish and Richard Bartholomew, who was the caregiver for his late wife while she was living with Alzheimer’s. (Patrick Skerrett, 3/31)
Stat: Integrate Social Determinants Into Public Health Maps
Before becoming a public health researcher, I trained as a geologist. That may seem like an unusual career trajectory, but it taught me that you can’t really understand how something exists today without weaving in the stories of its past. (Marynia Kolak, 3/31)
Kansas City Star: Missouri Republicans Defy Voters’ Will On Medicaid Expansion
The competition for the looniest argument against expanding Medicaid in Missouri was stiff Tuesday, but state Rep. Justin Hill, a Republican, took the prize. Hill, from Lake St. Louis, wandered away from the outer edges of sanity some time ago. He skipped his own swearing-in to attend the insurrectionist rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6. He has repeatedly questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election. He wants to trash Missouri’s nonpartisan court system, because of course Missouri can’t abide impartial judges. (3/31)
