Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Florida Surgeon General Altered Study To Imply More Covid Shot Risk
Politico: Florida Surgeon General Altered Key Findings In Study On Covid-19 Vaccine Safety
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo personally altered a state-driven study about Covid-19 vaccines last year to suggest that some doses pose a significantly higher health risk for young men than had been established by the broader medical community, according to a newly obtained document. Ladapo’s changes, released as part of a public records request, presented the risks of cardiac death to be more severe than previous versions of the study. He later used the final document in October to bolster disputed claims that Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were dangerous to young men. (Sarkissian, 4/24)
Also —
The New York Times: Dr. Fauci Looks Back On The Pandemic And What Went Wrong
Over several hours and multiple Zoom and phone calls in April, I spoke with Fauci about that: how he saw the full story of this historic public-health emergency and the role he played in it. At times, he was defensive, even combative, particularly when it came to episodes in which he felt that his own positions had been misconstrued and on the matter of gain-of-function research and the origins of the pandemic. But on the whole, he was reflective, even humble, especially about the way that Covid-19 exposed the limits of public health and, in his telling, kept surprising him and his fellow scientists. (Wallace-Wells, 4/24)
Axios: COVID Response Marked By National Incompetence, Report Shows
A group of crisis experts and federal advisers conclude in a report out today that a lack of disaster preparedness and coordination led to an unraveling of the nation's pandemic response, and that the crisis exposed a "collective national incompetence in governance." (Dreher, 4/25)
In other news about covid —
The New York Times: What’s Going On With Covid Right Now?
Experts agree that the risk from Covid-19 right now is low, and spring 2023 feels different from previous years. “We’ve reached a stage of stability where people are making choices to return their lives to something closer to normal,” said Dr. Robert Wachter, the chair of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “And I think that makes sense. Cases are relatively low; deaths are relatively low.” (Smith, 4/24)
CIDRAP: Scent-Trained Dogs Highly Accurate In Detecting COVID-19 In Schools
Scent-trained dogs detected COVID-19 infection with 83% sensitivity and 90% specificity in nearly 3,900 screenings at California K-12 schools in spring 2022, according to a research letter published today in JAMA Pediatrics. (Van Beusekom, 4/24)
CIDRAP: Shielding The Vulnerable Did Little To Reduce COVID-19 Among The At-Risk, Study Finds
Shielding, a public health strategy used across the United Kingdom in the early months of the pandemic, aimed to keep the most vulnerable citizens protected from the novel coronavirus at home and away from public-facing jobs and schools. But a new study of Welsh citizens published in the May issue of Public Health shows the strategy did little to prevent infection in this group. ... People who were shielded were more likely to be residents in long-term care facilities, women, and those ages 50 and older. Shielded people had a slightly higher known infection rate—5.9% versus 5.7%—compared with controls. All outcomes of infection were worse among shielded people. (Soucheray, 4/24)
