Different Takes: Therapeutic Food Shortage Is At Emergency Level; Kids Under 5 Will No Longer Be Left Behind
Opinion writers discuss therapuetic food, covid and reproductive health topics.
Newsweek:
The Emergency Shortage We Aren't Talking About
Parents and caregivers throughout the United States are struggling to feed their babies as three-quarters of the nation's retailers have been out of baby formula. For babies with allergies or other health conditions that require a specific product for food, this has been an extremely difficult, nerve-wracking situation. While this challenge is real and generating high-profile attention, another shortage getting much less attention is impacting children worldwide. (Imelda Awino, 6/15)
The Washington Post:
Finally, Young Children Will No Longer Be Left Behind In The Pandemic
Finally, relief for parents of young children is here: Children under 5 years old will almost certainly be able to get their coronavirus vaccines starting next week. This will make a huge difference to many families — mine included — who have been desperate to protect their kids against the coronavirus. (Leana S. Wen, 6/15)
CNN:
Why I'll Be Vaccinating My 2-Year-Old For Covid-19 As Soon As It's Possible
A year and a half ago, Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine for adults was loaded onto trucks and airplanes and shipped out for distribution across the United States -- the beginning of what would be one of the largest vaccination campaigns in this nation's history. The excitement surrounding the shipment brought out groups of cheering spectators. Former US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield stated "This is the next step in our efforts to protect Americans, reduce the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and help restore some normalcy to our lives and our country." We appear to be approaching the same pivotal moment, this time for the roughly 18 million children under the age of 5. (Syra Madad, 6/15)
The New York Times:
Why Kids Under 5 Should Get A Covid Vaccine
The rapid development of approaches to combating Covid-19 has changed how the pandemic affects our lives. While there are now a number of safe and effective layers of protection for adults to reduce their risk of the worst impacts of Covid-19, young children remain relatively unshielded. (Nicole E. Basta and Rachel Widome, 6/15)
Scientific American:
Bad COVID Public Health Messaging Is Blocking Our Path To A "New Normal"
The U.S. has no clear vision of how to reach a postpandemic world. Over the past two years, we have developed extraordinary scientific tools for the mitigation, treatment and prevention of COVID. But we’ve stumbled badly in implementing them. Many of these failures happened because our public health messages were not clear about how to use those tools, which include vaccines, masks, tests, antiviral drugs and temporary activity restrictions. The result is confusion among the public that has left us vulnerable to the disease and unable to respond to new and more transmissible variants such as BA.2 and its sublineages, which are infecting a rising number of people across the nation. America has already lost one million people during this pandemic. There may be future mutations that could be more lethal and highly contagious, and we are still woefully unprepared for them. (Thoai D. Ngo, 6/15)
Also —
The Washington Post:
Access To Contraception Will Be All The More Vital In A Post-Roe World
In 2004, I flew to Washington for the March for Women’s Lives. It was exciting to march with others for a cause I believed in. But watching the marchers and counterdemonstrators verbally clash over the right to abortion access, I felt far from my home in Chattanooga, Tenn., and the desperate need for essential services there. (Rachel Schulson, 6/15)
The Washington Post:
Condom ‘Stealthing’ Is Sexual Violence, Bill Says. Here’s What To Know.
A one-sided burden. A betrayal. A violation. “Rape-adjacent.” These are some of the ways women have described “stealthing,” a term used to describe the act of removing a condom during intercourse without the other partner’s consent. While victims of stealthing tend to be clear about its harms, what has been less clear is how to define it. Is it assault? And could — or rather, would — the law do anything about it? (Anne Branigin, 6/15)
