Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Private Research Leads The Way On Getting U.S. Back On Course; Federal Response On Medical Supply Shortages Is Woefully Inadequate
The Wall Street Journal: The Real Cure For Coronavirus
Governments are frantically trying to contain and combat the coronavirus, and those efforts are important, but the world’s best hope is private innovation. Cutting-edge diagnostic tests and treatments are advancing, and government should encourage the trend. President Trump recently ordered the Food and Drug Administration to “slash red tape like nobody’s ever done before” to make medicines approved for other illnesses available for coronavirus patients. The FDA is famously cautious, and safety is important. But drug regulators need to be more nimble during a pandemic with millions of lives at risk. (3/29)
San Francisco Chronicle: Medical Supply Shortages Show Vacuum Of Federal Leadership In Coronavirus Crisis
America’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been plagued by material shortages, from the scarcity of tests that helped the pathogen spread undetected to the deficits of masks, ventilators and other medical equipment needed to treat those it sickens. And yet the Trump administration has been so reluctant to use the authority of the federal government to direct the country’s capacity to those needs that in some respects, it’s already too late. (3/28)
Axios: Why The U.S. Doesn't Have Enough Hospital Beds To Deal With The Coronavirus
The shortage of hospital beds in the U.S. didn't happen by accident. It's a result of both market pressures and public policy. Why it matters: The bed shortage is one of many factors complicating America's response to the new coronavirus. But if we want to have more beds and critical equipment on hand for the next pandemic, the government will need to make it happen — and pay for it. By the numbers: The U.S. has 2.8 hospital beds per 1,000 people, far fewer than other developed countries. (Drew Altman, 3/30)
The New York Times: The Politics Of The Coronavirus Pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic is first and foremost a global public health crisis. But here in the United States — as is likely true in other countries — the response to it is heavily overlaid with political calculations. It is both obvious and inevitable. The crisis is unfolding in the lead-up to the election. Viewed strictly in a political light, the consequences and rewards of responses to this virus — good responses as well as bad ones — suggest a new political dynamic that has few predecessors. (Charles M. Blow, 3/29)
Boston Globe: To Defeat The Coronavirus, America Needs Immigrants
Immigrants have been front-line warriors fighting the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, providing medical care, picking field crops, disinfecting buildings, and delivering food and groceries to your front door. In the same vein, these workers will be critical, once the pandemic abates, to kickstart a decimated economy — but only if the Trump administration drops its misguided attacks on undocumented workers. (3/28)
Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus: 'Postponed' Abortions? That's Called Having Babies
As attempts to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic go, here’s a reprehensible one: the effort by some conservative states to halt abortions by arguing that they are “nonessential” medical procedures. Sounds ridiculous, but that’s the way officials in Ohio and Texas have interpreted emergency health orders intended to conserve medical equipment and gear needed for hospitals during the crisis. It should be obvious that an abortion can’t be “postponed” until the pandemic clears up like a facelift or cataract surgery or routine dental work. If a woman doesn’t get get an abortion in a timely fashion, she can’t get it at all. (3/27)
CNN: Abortion Is A Human Right. A Pandemic Doesn't Change That
Access to abortion is an essential service and a fundamental human right. Period. The denial of it, including in times of global crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic, constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. (Serra Sippel and Akila Radhakrishnan, 3/28)
The Hill: Leveraging SNAP To Alleviate Poverty — A Proven Policy Approach Needed Now
Unemployment is soaring due to COVID-19 business closures, with unprecedented disruptions in the food supply and to school or childcare-based food assistance. Increasing financial benefits to households participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is a proven policy approach to reduce poverty. In 2017, SNAP lifted 3.4 million people, including 1.5 million children, out of poverty. (Sara Bleich, Caroline Dunn and Sheila Fleischhacker, 3/29)
Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus: Cuomo And Newsom Fill In Trump's Leadership Vacuum
On Tuesday, Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, spoke to the media from a Manhattan convention center that’s being converted into a 1,000-bed hospital for COVID-19 patients. No one delivers bad news as well as Cuomo. He is a master of rue. Also bluntness. And that combination is what New York, and the nation, is starved for these days. Not condescension. Not soothing blandishments. Not dangerous Trumpist lies that imply the sick will rise from their beds and the dead from their graves on Easter Sunday. (Virginia Heffernan, 3/26)
The Hill: COVID-19: Now Is The Time To Create The Future We Want
It is now crystal clear that the health of the world determines our health here at home. As countries around the world hunker down to control COVID-19, it is not too early to plan for the next phase of the pandemic. America should lead the world in creating the systems and organizations required to overcome COVID-19, prepare to respond to future threats, and make the world safer and more prosperous. (Mark Dybul and Deus Bazira, 3/26)
Politico: Will The 2020 Elections Be Another Victim Of The Coronavirus?
Federal lawmakers have reached a bipartisan agreement for a $2 trillion stimulus package aimed at ameliorating the public health and economic crises wreaked by the coronavirus. But in one critical respect, the deal is a colossal failure: it includes less than one-fifth of what is needed retrofit our voting systems for a nationwide pandemic in time for the November election. Unless Congress remedies this failure quickly, the coronavirus will add our democracy to its casualties. (Weiser and Norden, 3/26)
