Different Takes: Relief Bill Helps People With Disabilities; Race And Health Care Conversations Essential

USA Today: Why Biden's COVID Relief Plan Is Big Win For People With Disabilities
A year after the pandemic began, people with disabilities finally can obtain the tools and assistance they need to earn a living and stay independent.  The American Rescue Plan, recently passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden, allocates $12.7 billion for what's known as home and community-based services, or HCBS, through 2021. This is truly something to celebrate — finally dedicated funding to support people with disabilities who want to get back to work. HCBS is an important source to keep people with disabilities at home, in their communities and out of costly nursing homes or group living setting, where we now know COVID-19 thrives. And it provides a critical lifeline to employment. (Judith Heumann and Tom Ridge, 4/14)

Scientific American: Why Race Matters In Personalized Health Care 
The COVID pandemic, combined with growing support for racial justice, has brought the issue of inequity in health care to the fore. This issue is nothing new—racial and ethnic disparities have been well documented in terms of unequal medical delivery and measures of health treatment outcomes—but now is the time for the medical community to make meaningful changes and address these gaps in care. As a woman of color in the biotech industry, I have a personal and professional interest in addressing these disparities. Furthermore, as a researcher, I have often wondered exactly what causes racial differences in disease rates and treatment response, and whether we might be able to reduce disparities and combat some diseases more effectively with a better understanding of the factors involved. Systemic racism clearly plays a major role, as do socioeconomics, environment and culture. Although race is a social rather than biological construct, there are inherited genetic variations that play a role in drug response and adverse drug reactions—and genetic variations differ among different ethnicities. (Saba Sile, 4/13)

The Baltimore Sun: Racism Is A Serious Threat To Public Health, CDC Says. Look At Police Killings To See Why. 
Racism is a serious threat to public health, the head of the Centers for Disease Control declared last week. The federal agency was a little late to a conclusion long backed by streams of research and other medical groups. The American Public Health Association says there are more than 170 municipalities that have embraced the concept. But the endorsement of the country’s top public health agency is significant in what it can mean for the direction of research dollars and the focus on health strategies in this country — and in whose life experiences matter. CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky also unveiled a new web portal focused on racism and health to show the agency is taking the issue seriously. (Andrea K. McDaniels, 4/13)

Crain's Chicago Business: A Private Equity LBO Of Medline Industries Would Worsen Medical Supply Chain Flaws Revealed By Pandemic
A massive, debt-fueled buyout of Medline Industries would be bad medicine for a health care sector stressed by COVID. The Wall Street Journal reported the other day that Northfield-based Medline is considering possible transactions, including an initial public offering, sale of a minority interest and a leveraged buyout valuing the company as high as $30 billion. With $17.5 billion in revenue, Medline is the largest privately held medical products company in the U.S. and a key source of personal protective equipment essential to fighting infectious diseases like COVID. (Joe Cahill, 4/13)

Stat: Looking Back At 15 Years Of Sharing Viral Genomes To Forge Ahead 
Anniversaries represent an opportunity for revisiting the past to make a leap forward. I’m using a 15-year anniversary of an act of scientific rebellion that changed my life — and affected the lives of many others — to look beyond Covid-19. In March 2006, Europe and other parts of the world were threatened by H5N1, the so-called bird flu virus. As a virologist working in Italy on viruses of pandemic potential, I ignited an animated international debate by refusing to send the sequence of the H5N1 viral genome to a password-protected database, but made it publicly available instead. And I urged my colleagues the world over to do the same. (Ilaria Capua, 4/14)

Los Angeles Daily News: Violating Intellectual Property Rights Jeopardizes Quality Health Care 
Policymakers across the globe are attempting to vilify the same private companies that have been invaluable partners in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. If these efforts are successful, it will be patients who are harmed the most. Globally, the World Trade Organization (WTO) wants to waive the patent rights for the companies that developed effective COVID-19 vaccines in record breaking time. Here in the U.S., states as diverse as Arkansas, California, and Texas are considering policies that use the pandemic as an excuse to violate device manufacturers’ intellectual property rights. In both cases, the proponents of violating companies’ intellectual property rights try to frame the problem as an issue of people over profits. Nothing could be further from the truth. (Wayne Winegarden, 4/13)

Modern Healthcare: Five Ways To Improve Children's Health And Well-Being
Today, we know what is "in" a caterpillar: its DNA, which can tell us a lot, but obviously not everything. The deeper layers of meaning to these words, when applied to pediatric healthcare, can be fuel for discovery. During my eight years as CEO of Boston Children's Hospital, the most profound lessons I learned came from those who care for children. I have been fortunate to witness their search for answers with one goal in mind: to advance and improve the health and well-being of children. The caterpillar-to-butterfly journey is their everyday path. There's a tremendous amount of work ahead of us to secure our children's future. Here are five of the most important lessons I've learned that can guide our work going forward: (Sandra L. Fenwick, 4/13)

KHN: Analysis: I Was A Teenage Rifle Owner, Then An ER Doctor. Assault Weapons Shouldn’t Count As ‘Guns.’
Many who know me might be shocked by this: I shot my first pistol when I was 8 or 9, taught by my father, a physician, aiming at targets in our basement. At summer camp, I loved riflery the way some kids loved art. Staring through the sight, down the barrel, I proved an excellent shot, gathering ever more advanced medals from the National Rifle Association. As a reward, for my 13th birthday, my uncle gave me a .22 Remington rifle. I did not grow up on a farm or in a dangerous place where we needed protection. I grew up in the well-off, leafy suburb of Scarsdale, N.Y. (Rosenthal, 4/14)

The New York Times: The Argument: Why The Anti-Abortion Side Will Lose, Even If It Wins 
The Supreme Court — and its post-Donald Trump conservative majority — is currently deciding whether to take up a case that could be the final blow to Roe v. Wade. Overturning Roe, the 48-year-old decision protecting the right to an abortion in America, would leave abortion regulation up to the states. But some abortion opponents think that’s not far enough and are pushing the movement to change its focus to securing a 14th Amendment declaration of fetal personhood. Ross Douthat wrote about the diverging anti-abortion movement and why both factions are doomed to fail as long as the movement is shackled to a Republican Party that refuses to enact public policy to help struggling families. Michelle Goldberg wrote a response column to Ross’s, claiming his argument was a fallacy. To bring their dueling columns to life, Jane Coaston brought the two writers together to debate the future of abortion protection and restriction in America. (4/14)