Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Judge Again Rejects Ending Protections For Immigrant Minors In US Custody
AP: Judge Denies Trump Administration Request To End A Policy Protecting Immigrant Children In Custody
A federal judge ruled Friday to deny the Trump administration’s request to end a policy in place for nearly three decades that is meant to protect immigrant children in federal custody. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles issued her ruling a week after holding a hearing with the federal government and legal advocates representing immigrant children in custody. (Gonzalez, 8/16)
Chicago Tribune: As One Boy Heals In Chicago, US Halts Medical Care Visas For Gazans
At a farm in the south suburbs, upbeat Arabic music swept across the land as more than a dozen Palestinian children — many with prosthetic limbs or in wheelchairs — and their families danced and moved to the music in the center of a raised platform. One of the children, Khalil Abu Shaban, traveled in a circle using his wheelchair and periodically sang into a microphone as the dozens who attended the Saturday celebration at Arab Chicago Farm in Frankfort excitedly clapped for him. (Johnson, 8/17)
Chicago Tribune: Migrant Given Humanitarian Parole Donates Kidney To Brother
The minutes dragged into hours on Wednesday night as Jose Gregorio Gonzalez tossed and turned through the night. At 5 a.m. the next day, he was scheduled to donate his kidney to his younger brother, Alfredo Pacheco, who was also restless. By 2 a.m. the two couldn’t stay in bed any longer and began to get ready for a day that they thought would never come. (Presa, 8/17)
On homelessness —
The New York Times: For D.C.’s Homeless, Strained Lives Become More Unstable
For some 15 years, David Brown had made a home in Washington Circle, living in a tent with a handful of others in an encampment. On Friday, that home was destroyed — his tent, clothing and other possessions were tossed into a dumpster by police officers carrying out President Trump’s crackdown on some of the city’s most powerless residents. Left with a fraction of his things, Mr. Brown and his 6-month-old puppy, Molly, moved a block away and slept outside the Foggy Bottom subway station. Sitting in a wheelchair outside the station on Saturday, he was still baffled at what was happening. “Why is he doing this, for no reason?” he asked of Mr. Trump. (Patil and Kavi, 8/18)
KFF Health News: Health Care Groups Aim To Counter Growing ‘National Scandal’ Of Elder Homelessness
At age 82, Roberta Rabinovitz realized she had no place to go. A widow, she had lost both her daughters to cancer, after living with one and then the other, nursing them until their deaths. Then she moved in with her brother in Florida, until he also died. And so last fall, while recovering from lung cancer, Rabinovitz ended up at her grandson’s home in Burrillville, Rhode Island, where she slept on the couch and struggled to navigate the steep staircase to the shower. (Freyer, 8/18)
On funding and research cuts —
Undark: Proposed NASA Cuts Could Affect Public Health Research
Daniel P. Johnson, a geographer at Indiana University at Indianapolis, works with a team of researchers who spend a lot of time catching blowflies, dissecting their iridescent blue-green abdomens, and analyzing the contents of their guts. Johnson and his colleagues are tracking the spread of Lyme disease on a warming planet. But they need a lot of additional data. They get it from NASA. The world’s foremost driver of space science is not a public health agency. But NASA’s vast data collection has quietly become important for health research, helping scientists track disease outbreaks and monitor air pollution amid climate change. (Kenen, 8/18)
Bloomberg: Foreign Aid Groups Challenge Loss In Trump Funding Freeze
Nonprofits and businesses that carry out foreign aid programs contested a recent court ruling that empowers the Trump administration to unilaterally refuse to spend billions of dollars in funding approved by Congress. The challengers on Friday asked the full US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to reconsider a panel’s 2-1 decision earlier this week that tossed out a pair of lawsuits over the funding block. (Tillman, 8/15)
The New York Times: A $45 Treatment Can Save A Starving Child. US Aid Cuts Have Frozen The Supply
The women walked miles through the dusty streets of Maiduguri, in the northeastern corner of Nigeria, carrying their emaciated children. At 7 a.m., they began lining up to wait, for hours, to be handed a small, red packet containing a special paste that could bring their children back from the brink of starvation. The children were eerily listless; they did not run, shout or even swat the flies off their faces. Their tiny, frail frames made many appear years younger than they were. (Mandavilli, 8/15)
