Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
If You Try To Drive Drunk In A 2026 Car, Congress Wants It To Stop You
AP: Congress Mandates New Car Technology To Stop Drunken Driving
Congress has created a new requirement for automakers: Find a high-tech way to keep drunken people from driving cars. It’s one of the mandates along with a burst of new spending aimed at improving auto safety amid escalating road fatalities in the $1 trillion infrastructure package that President Joe Biden is expected to sign soon. Under the legislation, monitoring systems to stop intoxicated drivers would roll out in all new vehicles as early as 2026, after the Transportation Department assesses the best form of technology to install in millions of vehicles and automakers are given time to comply. (Yen and Krisher, 11/8)
The impact of extreme weather on girls —
The Washington Post: COP26 Panel Discusses How Girls Are Disproportionately Affected By Climate Change
Across the world, many types of extreme weather are becoming more frequent and intense. In low- to lower-middle-income countries, these events are disproportionately affecting girls and young women. Often, they must drop out of school after infrastructure is damaged or skip school to help recoup losses at their homes or fields that were affected. “We cannot hope to build resilience for the decades ahead unless we educate all children. This especially is true for girls,” said Nobel Peace Prize laureate and education activist Malala Yousafzai, via video conference at the panel. “Education prepares women to develop climate solutions, secure green jobs and address issues at the heart of this crisis.” (Patel, 11/8)
Also —
KHN: As Overdose Deaths Soar, DEA-Wary Pharmacies Shy From Dispensing Addiction Medication
When Martin Njoku saw opioid addiction devastate his West Virginia community, he felt compelled to help. This was the place he’d called home for three decades, where he’d raised his two girls and turned his dream of owning a pharmacy into reality. In 2016, after flooding displaced people in nearby counties, Njoku began dispensing buprenorphine to them and to local customers at his Oak Hill Hometown Pharmacy in Fayette County. (Pattani, 11/9)
In mental health news —
The Philadelphia Inquirer: After A Student Death, Rowan Student Group Calls For More Mental Health Services
A group of Rowan University students on Monday called for the school to offer more mental health services following the death of a student last week near campus. University officials haven’t released information about the death, other than to acknowledge a student had passed away. Neither have Glassboro police, who said they are investigating. But the student apparently died by suicide at the same four-story parking garage where another student died two years ago, and word of the death has spread among the 19,000-member student body. (Snyder, 11/8)
KHN: A Judge Takes His Mental Health Struggles Public
In 1972, just 18 days after he was selected to run for vice president with Democratic Sen. George McGovern, Thomas Eagleton was forced off the ticket. The issue? Years earlier, Eagleton had been hospitalized and treated with electroshock therapy for depression. The disclosure of his mental health history was a blow from which the Missouri senator could not recover. Eagleton’s torpedoed candidacy has been a cautionary tale for elected officials ever since, says California Superior Court Judge Tim Fall, who serves in Yolo County. But rather than remain quiet as he approached his own reelection season last year, Fall came out with a book that detailed his decades-long struggles with anxiety and depression. (Kreidler, 11/9)
