Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Why Is There So Much Confusion Over Boosters?; Everyone Is At Risk Of Long Covid
Bloomberg: Do I Need A Covid Booster? Third Shot's Benefits Have Been Undersold
Fewer than half of eligible Americans have received a third Covid vaccine shot despite clear evidence of its benefit. That booster shot improves your odds of avoiding even mild omicron. So why haven’t more people gotten it?One reason may be that we’re all over map in our risk of getting infected. That variability could be causing confusion over who should get how many booster shots and when. “I’m confused, and I’m on the FDA advisory committee”, said Paul Offit, director of the vaccine education center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, on a recent video conference. (Faye Flam, 6/3)
The Star Tribune: Even The Healthy Face Long-COVID Risks
Savannah Brooks has been an athlete her whole life. She enjoys kickboxing and has trained for mixed martial arts competitions. But in April, the 30-year-old Minneapolis woman tested positive for COVID-19. It didn't make her sick enough to need hospitalization. Still, lingering fatigue and a racing heart rate accompanying even the mildest exertion mean she's now relying on a wheelchair for walks around her neighborhood. (6/5)
The New York Times: When Covid Took My Sense Of Smell
Like any other vaxxed and boosted human, I didn’t look forward to getting Covid — not when it was life-threatening Alpha, not when it was Delta-variant dreadful, not when it was Omicron omnipresent. I had enough brain fog already, thank you very much, and wasn’t kindly disposed toward the uncertainties of long Covid. But I was confident that when I did succumb, as perhaps we all must, there was one thing I didn’t need to worry about: anosmia. Though I might wind up coughing, feverish and as clogged as a frat house toilet, I just knew I’d be spared my sense of smell. My nose was too darned sensitive and persnickety to capitulate. (Pamela Paul, 6/5)
The Atlantic: The Missing Part Of America’s Pandemic Response
Many parts of the U.S. government, including its leading scientific agencies, are being blamed for the country’s chaotic and disorganized response to COVID-19. The CDC’s muddled and mistaken messaging about masks, testing, and the mechanism of viral spread sowed public confusion. The FDA’s extreme caution about approving boosters may have slowed the deployment of those vital measures. But a nation’s ability to weather a pandemic also depends upon its underlying ability to make major scientific discoveries, even—or especially—during moments of crisis. Success is not just a matter of luck; historically, the United States has made a series of strategic decisions that put researchers in a position to make timely breakthroughs. Yet amid the biggest health crisis in 100 years, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the $42-billion-a-year engine of our nation’s biomedical-research infrastructure, has been strangely quiet. (Cary P. Gross and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, 6/5)
The Wall Street Journal: Medicaid Has A Case Of Long Covid
In one of its 2020 aid bills, Congress temporarily boosted the federal government’s Medicaid contribution. As a condition to receive the extra money, states can’t disenroll Medicaid beneficiaries who become ineligible—only those who die, opt out or leave the state. This restriction lasts until the end of the official Public Health Emergency. For now that’s mid-July, but news reports say the Biden Administration plans another extension, and it also has promised to give states 60 days notice. That might mean October at the earliest. By then, according to an estimate from the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), “states will have an estimated 98 million Medicaid enrollees, including as many as 23 million people no longer eligible.” (6/3)
Dallas Morning News: When Doctors Spread Misinformation, They Must Be Held Accountable
Among the many things that have changed over the past 2½ years of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the general public’s growing interest in scientific information. On one hand this is a good thing; easy access and the ability to share accurate, timely information have helped educate the public to protect themselves. But on the other, this ease of information sharing has also led to the increased dissemination of misinformation that has become a prominent narrative in this modern pandemic. (Fred P. Cerise, 6/5)
