Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Global Progress Against HIV, TB, Malaria Faltered During Pandemic
The New York Times: The Pandemic Has Set Back The Fight Against H.I.V., TB And Malaria
The Covid-19 pandemic has severely set back the fight against other global scourges like H.I.V., tuberculosis and malaria, according to a sobering new report released on Tuesday. Before the pandemic, the world had been making strides against these illnesses. Overall, deaths from those diseases have dropped by about half since 2004. (Mandavilli, 9/7)
In global covid developments —
Reuters: U.S. CDC Warns Against Travel To Sri Lanka, Jamaica, And Brunei
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday warned against travel to Sri Lanka, Jamaica and Brunei because of the rising number of COVID-19 cases. The CDC raised its travel advisory to "Level 4: Very High" for those countries, telling Americans they should avoid travel there. (Shephardson, 9/7)
AP: French Doctors Demand Protection From Death Threats At Work
French doctors and scientists on Tuesday called on authorities to take action against the insults and threats— including death threats — that they have frequently received during the coronavirus pandemic. The doctors said they fear that someone from the world of conspiracy theories will take action, not just against them but against other medical professionals, and condemned the silence of authorities. “It’s months that some of us are receiving, regularly, death threats. Be it via social networks … Twitter, email, by telephone, or by the post. We are targets,” said Jerome Marty, a physician who heads a union for doctors in private practice, UFMLS. (Ganley, 9/7)
AP: Bulgaria, EU's Least Vaccinated Nation, Faces Deadly Surge
Standing outside the rundown public hospital in Bulgaria’s northern town of Veliko Tarnovo, the vaccination unit’s chief nurse voices a sad reality about her fellow citizens: “They don’t believe in vaccines.” Bulgaria has one of the highest coronavirus death rates in the 27-nation European Union and is facing a new, rapid surge of infections due to the more infectious delta variant. Despite that, people in this Balkan nation are the most hesitant in the bloc to get vaccinated against COVID-19. (McGrath, 9/8)
Reuters: Venezuela Receives First Batch Of Vaccines Through COVAX Mechanism
Venezuela has received its first batch of coronavirus vaccines through the COVAX mechanism intended for poor countries, the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Tuesday, after months of delays the government attributed to U.S. sanctions. The South American country has received 693,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by China's Sinovac Biotech, the first of a total of 11 million it will receive through COVAX, overseen by the GAVI alliance and the World Health Organization. (9/7)
Bloomberg: Israel’s Covid Surge Shows The World What’s Coming Next
The country that was once predicted to be the first to vaccinate its entire population had the highest per-capita caseload of anywhere in the week through Sept. 4, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Its world-beating inoculation rate, meanwhile, has tumbled down the league table. The nation of 9 million became the test case for reopening society and the economy in April when much of Europe and the U.S. were still in some form of lockdown. Yet Israel now shows how the calculus is changing in places where progress was fastest. It’s no longer just about whether people get coronavirus, but also how badly they get it and ensuring that vaccines are still working as the highly infectious delta variant threatens to undermine immunity. (Avis, 9/7)
The Wall Street Journal: U.K. Is Among First Western Nations To Increase Taxes To Cover Covid-19 Costs
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Tuesday announced tax increases to support the country’s state-funded National Health Service as it struggles to manage a backlog of millions of patients in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. With the announcement, Mr. Johnson is renouncing an election pledge not to raise payroll taxes, a move that sparked criticism from within his own Conservative Party and underscored the pressure the pandemic has put on governments to find funding for social services stretched by Covid-19 and aging populations. (Colchester, 9/7)
In other news —
AP: Spanish Hospital Baby Switch Discovered Two Decades Later
Health authorities in Spain are blaming human error for the switching of two baby girls in a maternity ward almost 20 years ago, after one of them discovered by chance through a DNA test as a teenager that she wasn’t the daughter of her presumed parents. “It was a human error and we haven’t been able to find out who was to blame,” Sara Alba, health chief of Spain’s northern La Rioja region, told a news conference Tuesday. “The systems back then were different and weren’t as computerized as they are now,” Alba said, offering assurances it couldn’t happen again. The newborns were mixed up in 2002 after being born five hours apart at a hospital in La Rioja. They were both in incubators because they were born underweight. (9/7)
USA Today: What Is The Nipah Virus And How Is It Different From COVID, Explained
Officials in India are racing to contain a virus outbreak that has claimed the life of a 12-year-old boy and is deadlier than COVID-19 — the Nipah virus. CBS News reports the boy was taken to the hospital last week in the southern Kerala state with a high-grade fever and suspected brain inflammation. After blood tests, he was diagnosed with the Nipah virus and died Sunday. Officials are using contact tracing, quarantine and hospitalization on the 188 people who have came into contact with the preteen to prevent a wide-spread outbreak, CBS reported. (Gilbert, 9/7)
