Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
In Face Of Blood Shortages, Red Cross Aims To Recruit More Donors With New App
The Washington Post: Blood Donation Made Easier With App
It happens every two seconds: a person needs donated blood or platelets to survive a surgery, cancer treatment, a traumatic injury. But blood stocks aren’t always high enough, especially during the winter when the holidays and nasty weather make some donations drop off. And each year, only 3 percent of eligible donors actually give blood to the American Red Cross, the organization responsible for a 40 percent of the nation’s blood supply. (Blakemore, 1/12)
NPR: Get Fit — Faster: This 22-Minute Workout Has You Covered
Hard to fit exercise into your day? Then, maybe this workout is for you. It covers everything you need — from cardio to strength-training to stretching. "You can get a fantastic work out in 22 minutes," says Tim Church. He's a physician and researcher who's spent his career studying exercise. (Aubrey, 1/13)
ProPublica: Nation’s Largest Mental Health Organization Urges Supported Housing Reforms
The National Alliance on Mental Illness has asked U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis to make “adjustments and modifications” to an ambitious plan to move mentally ill New Yorkers from troubled group homes into their own apartments, in a letter citing an investigation by ProPublica and Frontline. (Sapien, 1/14)
Stat: Science With Borders: A Debate Over National Rights Could Inhibit Research
There is something that is weighing heavily on the minds of some infectious diseases scientists these days. It’s not the challenging Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, though that is deeply concerning. It’s not a new flu virus or slashed research budgets or laboratory safety violations. It’s an international treaty. More specifically, it’s an agreement within a treaty that could, depending on how negotiations play out, make it extraordinarily difficult to conduct disease surveillance or forge research collaborations around the world. (Branswell, 1/14)
Miami Herald: CDC: US Patients’ Mexican Surgeries Led To Deadly Infection
Nearly a dozen Americans who went to Tijuana recently for surgeries from cheaper Mexican hospitals came back with something else: deadly, drug-resistant infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns Americans to avoid a specific Mexican hospital and to take precautions so they don’t get infected by the antibiotic-resistant form of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria. (Gilmour, 1/11)
The Washington Post: Why It’s Important For Experts To Admit They’re Wrong
Can you recognize — and admit — when you’re wrong? If not, you’re not alone, science reporter Brian Resnick writes in Vox. In “Intellectual humility: The importance of knowing you might be wrong,” he examines the roadblocks that keep people from admitting and learning from their mistakes. What’s more, he considers how humility can help science move forward, even when researchers’ results are disproved or deemed impossible to replicate. (Blakemore, 1/13)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: How A 'Shared Despair' Affects Mental Health Of Georgia Tech Students.
Campuses across the country are grappling with a rise in suicides and depression. Today, suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students. (Traffic accidents is first.) (Downey, 1/13)
Columbus Dispatch: Poor More Likely To Die From Cancer Than Rich Despite Overall Decline
While the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Statistics 2019 report shows that the overall cancer death rate in the U.S. dropped 27 percent from 1991 to 2016, it also shows that disparities based on social and economic factors are increasing. During the five years ending in 2016, the cancer death rate was 20 percent higher in the nation’s poorest counties compared with its most affluent ones. (Viviano, 1/14)
The Washington Post: Americans Took More Than 26 Trillion Steps Last Year, According To Fitbit.
Health experts have been saying for years that the path to a healthy self starts with being physically active. Apparently, people have been listening. Americans wearing a fitness tracker, specifically a Fitbit device, took more than 26 trillion steps last year — actually, precisely 26,857,655,603,500 steps. They accomplished this over 118.9 billion minutes; they also slept 12.4 billion hours. Fitbit says its U.S. clients averaged 7,994 steps a day, ranking 33rd worldwide (Hong Kong residents topped the list, averaging 10,493 steps a day). (Searing, 1/12)
WBUR: Deaf And Unemployed: 1,000+ Applications But Still No Full-Time Job
Fewer than 40 percent of those with a hearing disability work full time, according to the Yang-Tan Institute at Cornell University's analysis of 2016 American Community Survey data. Despite improvements in technology and accommodations that are making it easier for deaf people to work and communicate, deaf job hunters say employers still don't believe they can do the work. (Morris, 1/12)
