Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Rapid Antigen Tests Needed To Slow Delta; Texas Hospitals Experiencing Covid Crisis
Bloomberg: We Need Quicker Tests to Contain the Delta Variant
With the delta variant surging throughout the U.S., Biden administration chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci has advocated for more testing — including for the vaccinated. More testing is essential, but how we test is important, too. (Max Nisen, 8/12)
Dallas Morning News: Texas Hospitals Are Facing A COVID-19 Disaster. Gov. Abbott Must Act
Babies hooked to ventilators. Overflow tents pitched outside of hospitals. Parents fretting that sending their kids to school might become an intolerable risk. It’s surreal to write this. Just a few months ago we were celebrating Parkland Hospital’s closing of its COVID-19 intensive care units in Dallas. We noted that Gov. Greg Abbott was right to reopen Texas in the spring, as COVID-19 case numbers slumped and vaccines became widely available in the weeks that followed. (8/13)
The New England Journal of Medicine: Confronting Our Next National Health Disaster — Long-Haul Covid
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than 114 million Americans had been infected with Covid-19 through March 2021. Factoring in new infections in unvaccinated people, we can conservatively expect more than 15 million cases of long Covid resulting from this pandemic. And though data are still emerging, the average age of patients with long Covid is about 40, which means that the majority are in their prime working years. Given these demographics, long Covid is likely to cast a long shadow on our health care system and economic recovery. (Steven Phillips and Michelle A. Williams, 8/12)
USA Today: More Kids Are Getting COVID Just As School Resumes. Here Are The Facts, The Fights And The Fallout
Every day this week we've reported about hospitals treating growing numbers of kids who have COVID-19. This is happening just as schools are resuming, leading to mask mandates, anti-mask mandates, frustrated parents and fed-up students. Here is what is going on. (Nicole Carroll, 8/13)
The Atlantic: When COVID-19 Puts Kids At Risk, Parents May Overreact
As a practicing primary-care doctor, I fully empathize with parents who worry about their unvaccinated kids’ potential exposure to the coronavirus. Raising my own children is a daily exercise in vulnerability. One rainy night this summer, my teenage son, a new driver who was running late for a babysitting job, asked for my keys. “Can’t you walk there instead?” I pleaded. He rolled his eyes. I let him use the car, but not before peppering him with reminders to be careful and to use the headlights and wipers. Shielding my kids from danger is a fundamental instinct; tolerating risk for them is hard emotional work. (Lucy McBride, 8/13)
Houston Chronicle: Why We Chose To Enroll Our Child In The Moderna Vaccine Trial
As the parent of two children, I am struggling with the fears of what could happen if they get COVID-19 when they go back to school. However, I also feel certain that the decision my husband and I made to vaccinate our now 9-year-old as part of a vaccine clinical trial was not only best for our family but will help all children who will hopefully have access to the vaccine. (Ruth M. Lopez, 8/13)
The Baltimore Sun: What The Supreme Court Might Do About Vaccine Mandates
The first mandatory vaccination case to reach the Supreme Court comes from Indiana University, which is requiring students to get COVID shots before enrolling for the fall semester unless they have a medical or religious exemption. The lower courts have upheld the requirement under the authority of Jacobson v. Massachusetts, a 1905 case in which the court upheld a smallpox vaccine requirement in my hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It’s unlikely that the justices will issue an emergency order blocking the university’s policy from going into effect. They may not even want to hear the case, preferring to avoid the contentious national conversation about vaccines. (Noah Feldman, 8/12)
The Washington Post: Biden Should Flex Washington’s Muscle To Get Americans Vaccinated
President Biden is not the first American chief executive to come up against recalcitrant governors and other officials willing to put their political interests ahead of the well-being of citizens. But the enormous resources of the federal government give him tools to overcome those forces. In figuring out how to effectively flex Washington’s muscle on health care, the 46th president might look to the 36th. (Karen Tumulty, 8/11)
