Different Takes: Lessons On Counting Deaths To Understand Pandemic’s True Toll; Changes Due For Health Care Models

Stat: Excess Mortality Reveals The Pandemic's True Burden 
How best to represent the true toll of the Covid-19 pandemic on human lives is an urgent matter. Though loss of life represents the clearest indicator, limited testing, inconsistencies in assigning the cause of death, and even political influence are creating uncertainty over how deaths are being counted and attributed (or not) to Covid-19. (Philip Setel, 8/3)

Modern Healthcare: COVID-19 Will Have Lasting Effects On Providers, Including How They Operate And How They’re Paid
From the delay of preventive care and non-emergency procedures and surgeries to the rapid adoption of telehealth to volatile patient volumes, we know that how we engage and compensate healthcare providers will continue to shift, but leading with a strategy of hoping we will return to the healthcare industry that we once knew will fail. The near future remains vague. However, we know that we need more healthcare providers—and not just because of COVID-19. (Halee Fischer-Wright. 8/1)

The New York Times: A Coronavirus Vaccine Is Coming. Just Don’t Call It ‘Warp Speed.’
Coronavirus vaccines are rapidly advancing through the development pipeline. The University of Oxford’s vaccine is in large trials in Britain, Brazil and South Africa. In the United States, researchers just began enrolling around 30,000 volunteers to test Moderna’s vaccine, and more trials are starting every day. Operation Warp Speed has set an ambitious goal of delivering 300 million doses of a safe, effective vaccine by January.But the concept of developing a vaccine at “warp speed” makes many people uncomfortable. (Natalie Dean, 8/3)

CNN: What Good Is A Vaccine If Americans Won't Roll Up Their Sleeves?
A doctor in Texas once told me that a woman walked into a pediatrician's office in the fall of 2014 and said: "Give my daughter the Ebola vaccine." The biggest Ebola epidemic in history was spreading across West Africa and a man infected with the virus had recently traveled to Dallas. "There is no vaccine for Ebola," the pediatrician said (the first US Food and Drug Administration-approved Ebola vaccine was announced in December 2019). "But it is flu season and I can give your daughter the flu vaccine." The mother scoffed and said, "Flu vaccine? I don't believe in those things!" before storming out of the doctor's office. (Seema Yasmin, 8/1)

Dallas Morning News: Gov. Greg Abbott Is Right To Extend The Early Voting Period Before Election Day
There is a lot that Texas needs to do to be prepared for an Election Day that will take place in the midst of a pandemic. Failing to provide ample time for voters to get to the polls is no longer on that list.Citing coronavirus concerns, Gov. Greg Abbott recently approved an early start to early voting. The governor extended the early voting period to Oct. 13. The change adds six days at the start of early voting and gives voters roughly three weeks to cast ballots in advance of Election Day on Nov. 3. Abbott also is allowing voters to turn in mail ballots in person on Election Day. These are good decisions to mitigate concerns posed by the coronavirus pandemic, which health authorities say will remain a threat during early voting and on Election Day, when a massive voter turnout is expected. (8/3)

The Hill: What The Pandemic Taught Us About Homelessness — And What We Shouldn't Forget 
The streets of our cities have been too empty and too full. Emptied of cars and pedestrians, the streets of the pandemic became eerie still frames of an economy on pause. And yet, as we venture back to our sidewalks and storefronts, we are reminded that our streets also are a home, an imperfect and unsustainable haven for the transient masses we call “the homeless.” Never has it been starker than in the vacuum of social distancing that they are there, the only people who remained when all others retreated to the safety of their homes. (Thomas Hugh Byrne, Benjamin F. Henwood and Anthony W. Orlando, 8/2)

CNN: The US Food System Is Killing Americans
This global pandemic has given a new meaning to the idea of American exceptionalism. The United States is faring far worse than other countries and shoulders a disproportionate share of global disease burden -- with 4% of the global population, yet, at the time of writing, nearly a quarter of global Covid-19 fatalities. While much of the rationale has focused on our government's flat-footed response and poor public health infrastructure, this ignores a significant and underrecognized risk factor -- the exceedingly poor baseline health of our country's population. (Akash Goel, Michel Nischan, Bill Frist and Tom Colicchio, 8/2)

Stat: Black Lives Depend On The U.S. Dietary Guidelines. Don't Dilute Them 
Most Americans know about the Dietary Guidelines for Americans primarily through their colorful representations: the original food pyramid, which a few years ago morphed into MyPlate. The guidelines represent the government mothering us to choose the healthiest vegetables, grains, sources of protein, and desserts, and to eat them in the healthiest portions. As innocuous as the food pyramid and MyPlate seem, they are actually a matter of life and death. (Michelle D. Holmes, 8/3)

Los Angeles Times: Ban On Menthols Could Help Improve Black Americans' Health
Big Tobacco has successfully conducted a decades-long campaign to lure and hook Black smokers by marketing menthol-infused products specifically to Black consumers. They have helped destroy Black health in the process — a whopping 85% of Black Americans who smoke use mentholated cigarettes, or menthols. Senate Bill 793 would make it illegal for stores to sell flavored tobacco products, including menthol-flavored vaping cartridges and cigarettes. Introduced early this year, the bill is scheduled to be taken up soon by the state Assembly Health Committee. (John E. Cager III and Peter Laarman, 8/3)