Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Gallup Says 2020 Is Record-Setting Year For World's Negative Emotions
Axios: Gallup: 2020 Was The Most Stressful Year In 15 Years
More people said they experienced negative emotions and feelings in 2020 than any other year in recent history, according to Gallup's latest Negative Experience Index. "2020 officially became the most stressful year in recent history," Gallup writes. Gallup surveyed adults in 115 countries, finding that 4 in 10 said they experienced worry or stress last year. (Gonzalez, 7/20)
In other public health news —
Fox News: Puzzles, Card Games Later In Life May Delay Alzheimer’s Onset By Five Years, Study Finds
Playing puzzles, card games, reading books and engaging in other mentally stimulating activities later in life can help delay the onset of Alzheimer’s dementia by five years, researchers found. Findings published in Neurology on July 14 analyzed nearly 2,000 patients about 80 years old on average and free of dementia at the study start. During seven years of follow-up with annual exams and cognitive tests, some 457 people about 90 years old on average developed dementia, or "impaired ability to remember, think, or make decisions that interferes with doing everyday activities," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Rivas, 7/20)
Stat: More Than 200 People Being Tracked For Possible Monkeypox Exposure
More than 200 people in 27 states are being monitored for possible exposure to monkeypox after they had contact with an individual who contracted the disease in Nigeria before traveling to the United States this month, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To date, no additional cases have been detected. State and local health authorities are working with the CDC to identify and assess the individuals, and follow up with them daily until late this month, said Andrea McCollum, who leads the poxvirus epidemiology unit at the agency’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. (Branswell, 7/20)
KHN: Though Millions Are At Risk For Diabetes, Medicare Struggles To Expand Prevention Program
Damon Diessner tried for years to slim down from his weight of more than 400 pounds, partly because his size embarrassed his wife but even more because his doctors told him he was at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. His hemoglobin A1c level, a blood sugar marker, was 6.3%, just below the diabetes range of 6.5%. Then, two years ago, one of his doctors helped get him into a YMCA-run Diabetes Prevention Program not far from his home in Redmond, Washington. The group classes, at first held in person and then via Zoom during the covid-19 pandemic, were led by a lifestyle coach. He learned how to eat better, exercise more and maintain a healthier lifestyle overall. He now weighs 205 pounds, with an A1c level of 4.8%, which is in the normal range. (Meyer, 7/21)
Bloomberg/Bay Area News Group: Apple Delays Office Return By At Least A Month As Covid Spikes
A resurgent COVID pandemic is pushing Apple to delay its return-to-office deadline by at least a month, to October at the earliest, people familiar with the matter said. The Cupertino iPhone giant was responding to the new coronavirus variants that are dramatically increasing case rates and hospitalizations around the world, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because they were discussing the firm’s internal policy. Apple last month told employees to be back in the office at least three days a week starting in early September, prompting more than 1,700 workers to sign a letter to company executives asking for more flexibility to work remotely, tech website The Verge first reported. This month, Apple employees again wrote to their leaders, objecting to a lack of action on flexibility, according to tech site Recode. (Barron, 7/20)
In obituaries —
The Washington Post: Paul Auerbach, Pioneer Of Wilderness And Disaster Medicine, Dies At 70
Paul S. Auerbach was an adventurer — a deep-sea diver, a trekker and, in his vocation as a physician, a doctor who instinctively ran toward the scene of disaster. Early in his career, he discovered that when adventure and disaster combined, and a hiker developed frostbite, a camper was struck by lightning or a swimmer was stung by a stingray, even many doctors were ill-prepared to respond. Just a few years out of his residency, Dr. Auerbach established himself as a father of the field that came to be known as wilderness medicine. With Edward C. Geehr, a fellow specialist in emergency medicine, he co-edited the volume “Management of Wilderness and Environmental Emergencies” (1983), a reference guide that a reviewer for the New England Journal of Medicine described as “long overdue” and one that “doubtless will be a fixture in every emergency room.” (Langer, 7/20)
