Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Health Officials Warn Of Risks Linked To Increasing Marijuana Use
CBS News: Children Increasingly Overdosing On Marijuana Edibles
Last month, Elizabeth Perry felt helpless as it became clear something was very wrong with her 21-month-old son Oliver. "When I laid him down in his crib, he kind of went rigid and started shaking and crying," Perry said. Within an hour, he was in a Maryland hospital and doctors determined he had THC, the chemical in marijuana that gives users a high, in his system. Oliver had managed to open a tin containing edible cannabis gummies that Perry used to help her sleep. To Oliver, it looked like candy. "My first thought was, I did this to him, this is my fault," she said. (Pegues, 7/21)
CNN: Schizophrenia Linked To Marijuana Use Disorder Is On The Rise, Study Finds
The proportion of schizophrenia cases linked with problematic use of marijuana has increased over the past 25 years, according to a new study from Denmark. In 1995, 2% of schizophrenia diagnoses in the country were associated with cannabis use disorder. In 2000, it increased to around 4%. Since 2010, that figure increased to 8%, the study found. (Hunt, 7/22)
In other public health news —
CNN: Breastfeeding Linked To Lower Blood Pressure In Toddlers
Toddlers who were breastfed for any amount of time had lower blood pressure than those who were not breastfed at all, according to a new study, suggesting once again that "breast is best" for health. The reduction in blood pressure found in the study "is of clinically important magnitude and surprising," Dr. Lori Feldman-Winter told CNN in an email. Feldman-Winter, who was not involved in the study, is the chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Breastfeeding. (Molano, 7/21)
CBS News: Tens Of Thousands Of Children Cope With "Pandemic Grief" After Losing Parent Or Caregiver
Alyssa Quarles is overwhelmed by guilt that she couldn't save her 48-year-old father, Theodis, after he got COVID. "As the days passed, he started to say, like, 'Help me. Please don't let me die,'" she told CBS News, crying. "Like I don't know what to say to him. Like I don't think he's gonna die, but he keeps saying it. It was hard." The Quarles girls are among at least 113,000 American children struggling with "pandemic grief" after losing a parent, or caregiver, to the virus, according to Lancet and the Journal of the American Medical Association. A quarter of them are younger than age 10, while 20% are Black. Minorities are disproportionately affected. (Villarreal, 7/21)
USA Today: Muffin Recall 2021: Walmart, 7-Eleven Sold Recalled Muffins
Give and Go Prepared Foods Corp. is voluntarily recalling select muffins for possible listeria contamination. The muffins were sold nationwide under various brand names, including Uncle Wally's, and store brands, including at Walmart, 7-Eleven and Stop & Shop, according to a recall notice posted on the Food and Drug Administration website. "Consumers who have these products should immediately dispose of the products and not eat them," the company said in the recall. (Tyko, 7/21)
AP: Hall Of Famer Bobby Bowden Has Terminal Medical Condition
Hall of Fame college football coach Bobby Bowden announced Wednesday he has been diagnosed with a terminal medical condition. “I’ve always tried to serve God’s purpose for my life, on and off the field, and I am prepared for what is to come,” Bowden said in a statement released to news outlets, including The Associated Press. “My wife Ann and our family have been life’s greatest blessing. I am at peace.” The 91-year-old Bowden was hospitalized last October after he tested positive for COVID-19. The positive test came a few days after returning to his Tallahassee home from a lengthy hospital stay for an infection in his leg. He did not disclose his condition in his statement. (Reed, 7/22)
In environmental health news —
AP: As Wildlife Smoke Spreads, Who's At Risk?
Smoke from wildfires in the western U.S. and Canada is blanketing much of the continent, including thousands of miles away on the East Coast. And experts say the phenomenon is becoming more common as human-caused global warming stokes bigger and more intense blazes. Pollution from smoke reached unhealthy levels this week in communities from Washington state to Washington D.C. Get used to it, researchers say. (Brown, 7/22)
KHN: Wildfire Smoke Drives People In Low-Vaccinated Areas Indoors, Raising Outbreak Fears
Missoula’s new downtown library was teeming with people who might typically spend a Saturday afternoon hiking, biking or otherwise making the most of Montana’s abundant outdoor recreation. One look at the soupy haze blanketing the city and it was clear why. “We’re definitely trying to stay out of the smoke,” Charlie Booher said as his kids picked out books from the stacks. (Bolton, 7/22)
The Washington Post: Heat Waves Are Dangerous. Isolation And Inequality Make Them Deadly.
Mandi Luke’s symptoms came on slowly: spots on her vision, fuzziness in her brain. Hunkered down in her tent beside a bike path in Portland’s Lents neighborhood, she sipped Gatorade and made sure a breeze flowed through an opening in the fabric. Her husband — a former Army medic — was helping treat sick people at another camp. When he texted to check on her, she tried to reassure him. Luke, 36, had been on and off the streets for years. She knew the dangers of heat, knew how to look after herself. And she knew that abandoning her home, her dog and her life’s possessions to seek out air conditioning was not an option. (Kaplan, 7/21)
KHN: A Chilling Cure: Facing Killer Heat, ERs Use Body Bags To Save Lives
As a deadly heat wave scorched the Pacific Northwest last month, overwhelming hospital emergency rooms in a region unaccustomed to triple-digit temperatures, doctors resorted to a grim but practical tool to save lives: human body bags filled with ice and water. Officials at hospitals in Seattle and Renton, Washington, said that as more people arrived experiencing potentially fatal heatstroke, and with cooling catheters and even ice packs in short supply, they used the novel treatment to quickly immerse and cool several elderly people. (Aleccia, 7/22)
