Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Shortage Of Hydroxychloroquine Would Harm Many Patients Who Actually Need It; Older Health Care Workers Deserve To Be Protected
The Washington Post: Stop Hoarding Hydroxychloroquine. Many Americans, Including Me, Need It.
Forty-one pills. That’s how much medication I have left, with no guarantees for next month. I take the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine (brand-name Plaquenil) off-label to treat an autoimmune disorder, and like Americans across the country who battle autoimmune diseases including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, I’m facing a shortage of this life-preserving drug. (Stacy Torres, 3/24)
Stat: Protect Older And Vulnerable Health Care Workers From Covid-19
Since the Covid-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus emerged late in 2019, health care workers have been at particularly high risk of infection. In China, more than 3,300 health care workers have been infected, including Dr. Li Wenliang, who died after being the first to sound the alarm. More than 4,800 health care workers have been infected in Italy, where harrowing stories from Italian physicians and nurses are being posted on social media. (Aaron Kofman and Alfonso Hernandez-Romieu, 3/25)
Modern Healthcare: Deciding Who Lives And Who Dies During The COVID-19 Pandemic
Medical leaders in Washington state quietly debated a plan to decide who gets care when hospitals fill up. Not many details are out, but the arguments echo a similar discussion in Italy, where an intensive-care unit protocol withheld life-saving care from certain people. The rejected were those older than 80 or who had a Charlson comorbidity index of 5 or more. With my diagnosis of stage IV lung cancer, I score a 6! (Morhaf Al Achkar, 3/24)
The Washington Post: What It’s Like Being A New York ER Doctor During This Pandemic
Wake up at 6:30 a.m. Priority is making a big pot of coffee for the whole day, because the place by the hospital is closed. The Starbucks, too. It’s all closed. On the walk, it feels like Sunday. No one is out. Might be the freezing rain. Or it’s early. Regardless, that’s good. Walk in for your 8 a.m. shift: Struck by how the calm of the early morning city streets is immediately transformed. The bright fluorescent lights of the ER reflect off everyone’s protective goggles. There is a cacophony of coughing. You stop. Mask up. Walk in. (Craig Spenser, 3/24)
Boston Globe: In Order To Save Dr. Fauci, We Must Destroy Him
President Trump is watching and listening to the same thing we are, i.e., Fauci going to the podium to rebut with facts the latest outbreak of paranoid anxiety or the president’s regularly reckless statements. Fauci is an oasis of rigor and reason in a barren desert of confusion and fear. Which, given who he works for, makes him an endangered species. (Kevin Cullen, 3/23)
Stat: In A Pandemic, Hospital Staffers Need To Get Better At Hand-Washing
After visiting Ellis Island in 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt noted the lack of hand-washing by doctors and wrote the Public Health Service that he was “struck by the way doctors made the examinations with dirty hands,” turning the examinations themselves into “a fruitful source of carrying infection.” Fast forward 114 years: Today’s hospitals aren’t doing much better at hand-washing. That’s a serious problem in ordinary times; during the Covid-19 national emergency it could become extraordinarily dangerous. (Leah Binder and Michael L. Millenson, 3/25)
CNN: How We've Overcome Past Pandemics
We are living through a pandemic -- and everything normal about our daily lives has been put on hold. A hug or a handshake could spread a deadly disease that is already galloping out of control... But we will get through this. Do you know how we can say that with certainty? Because we've been through far worse before. (John Avlon, 3/24)
CNN: Everyone Needs To See Andrew Cuomo's Inspiring Words On The Fight Against Coronavirus
It's a difficult moment for America. We are in the grips of the coronavirus pandemic, which is sickening thousands and killing hundreds -- all while growing its reach exponentially lately. "Social distancing" and "shelter in place" have become familiar terms. The economy continues to free fall. And everywhere there is anxiety, fear and doubt. Which brings me to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo -- and, specifically, to something he said in his daily press briefing on the coronavirus Tuesday morning. (Chris Cillizza, 3/24)
