Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: A Zika Experiment; Making Vaccines; The Big Soda Battle
FiveThirtyEight: Small Island, Big Experiment
The first thing Billy Ryan does after he arrives at work most mornings is drive to a yacht club or construction company lot, crawl into a mangrove, and stand for 60 seconds to count the mosquitoes that land on him. If there are five or more, he’ll request that a crew come spray the area the next day. (Anna Maria Barry-Jester, 10/18)
The Atlantic: To Make Vaccines Anywhere, Just Add Water
To get a vaccine from a factory to a child who needs it, you often need to cross countries, if not continents. Across that distance, vaccines are relayed through a “cold chain” of insulated boxes, freezers, vehicles, and depots. The chain is as fragile as it is necessary: If any link fails, the life-saving cargo would rapidly thaw and irreversibly degrade. (Ed Yong, 10/12)
Vox: Billionaires Vs. Big Soda: Inside The High-Stakes Soda Tax Fight
San Francisco, Oakland, and Albany, California, all have ballot measures that would levy a penny-per-ounce tax on distributors of sugary drinks. The people of Boulder, Colorado, will also vote on a two-cent-per-ounce excise tax on distributors. The stakes this year — for the beverage industry and for health-minded philanthrocapitalists who want to fight obesity — are high. Look no further than the dollars both sides are investing to try to win. (Julia Belluz, 10/18)
The Wall Street Journal: Tramadol: The Opioid Crisis For The Rest Of The World
An addictive synthetic painkiller that some studies say is as powerful as morphine remains unregulated on the recommendation of the World Health Organization, helping spread abuse and addiction in the developing world. (Justin Scheck, 10/20)
The Atlantic: The Delayed Gratification Of Obamacare
With the national rate of uninsured people at historic lows, why isn’t Obamacare more popular? Over the course of the last two years, which saw around 20 million Americans gain health insurance coverage, public opinion of the Affordable Care Act nevertheless remains negative. Its unfavorability rating in a Kaiser Family Foundation poll hovered at 47 percent in both September 2014 and 2016, and over the same time span favorability has increased from 35 percent to just 44 percent, though it was higher in 2015 than today. (Vann Newkirk, 10/17)
FiveThirtyEight: Prisoners With Hep C Get Cured In Some States But Not Others
Salvatore Chimenti already had advanced liver damage from the hepatitis C virus when he filed a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections in the summer of 2015. He wanted access to new and expensive drugs that cure the virus in 90 percent or more of people who take them. Because he is an inmate, when the DOC denied him the medication, the only way Chimenti could potentially get it was to sue. (Anna Maria Barry-Jester, 10/17)
