Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Mexico City's Ivermectin Mistake; How To Manage Next Pandemic
The Washington Post: Mexico City’s Decision To Distribute Ivermectin Marked A New Low For Pandemic Mismanagement
For anyone paying even a little bit of attention, it’s clear that Mexico has done a poor job dealing with the pandemic. In June 2020, Hugo López-Gatell, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s coronavirus czar, said a potential toll of 60,000 deaths would be a “very catastrophic scenario.” So far, more than 300,000 Mexicans have died, and some estimates paint a much more dire picture. But recent reports that Mexico City’s government conducted an ethically questionable “quasi-experimental study” in public health involving ivermectin have highlighted the ruling party’s negligence and recklessness. (Leon Krauze, 2/9)
Stat: To Fight The Next Pandemic, Look To Collaboration And Fail-Fast Approaches
If you are one of the more than 4 billion people around the world who has received a dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, you’ve experienced firsthand the power of collaboration in health care. Just a few weeks after it became apparent that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, was spreading globally, workers from all parts of the health care ecosystem began collaborating. For example, in January 2020 the Jenner Institute and the Oxford Vaccine Group formed a consortium to bring together experts from academia, biotech companies, and development and manufacturing organizations to begin developing the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was authorized for use in the U.K. eleven months later. (Birgit Girshick, 2/11)
Modern Healthcare: Of All The Lessons The Pandemic Has Taught Us, Let’s Never Forget The Importance Of Community
It’s hard to believe that at the beginning of 2020, our healthcare system, our country and our world operated in an environment without COVID-19. Just two short years later, I have the honor of serving as chairman of the American Hospital Association, taking over in a much different environment than the pre-pandemic era. (Wright Lassiter III, 2/8)
