Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: How A Quarantine Works; GOP Plan To Sue Obama Hits A Stumbling Block
Vox: How Ebola Quarantines Actually Work, Explained
As Ebola fears wash over America, some state governors are turning to mandatory quarantines: locking up healthy workers returning from West Africa for 21 days, Ebola's incubation period. The policy in New Jersey made national headlines after it resulted in a nurse who had no Ebola symptoms — and had been fighting the disease in West Africa, no less — being isolated in a poorly heated tent with no running shower or toilet. Public-health experts see the measure as extreme, unnecessary and potentially harmful. But politicians are running ahead with quarantines anyway. (Julia Belluz, 10/28)
The Atlantic: The Anti-Vaccine Movement Is Forgetting The Polio Epidemic
At a time when a single case of Ebola or enterovirus can start a national panic, it’s hard to remember the sheer scale of the polio epidemic. In the peak year of 1952, there were nearly 60,000 cases throughout America; 3,000 were fatal, and 21,000 left their victims paralyzed. In Frankie Flood’s first-grade classroom in Syracuse, New York, eight children out of 24 were hospitalized for polio over the course of a few days. (Jennie Rothenberg Gritz, 10/28)
Washington Monthly: The Congressional Research Service Finds That Boehner’s Lawsuit Has No Legal Basis
When, back in July, Speaker John Boehner secured House authorization to file suit against President Obama for “changing the health care law without a vote of Congress, effectively creating his own law,” cynical Democrats derided the planned litigation as a “political stunt,” a talking point for the fall campaign playbook. But a report by the apolitical Congressional Research Service (CRS), completed on September 4, but never released by the member who sponsored it, nor mentioned in the press, indicates that the Democrats were not cynical enough. (Simon Lazarus and Elisabeth Stein, 10/26)
The New York Times: Atul Gawande: By The Book
The author, most recently, of “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End” is a great fan of Dr. Watson: “He is intelligent, observant and faithful, the way we want all doctors to be.” (10/26)
The New York Times: A Perfect Fit For Some, But Not For Others
For the past year, The New York Times has asked readers to share their experiences purchasing and using health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Here is a selection of their stories, written by Times journalists, from some of those submissions. (Abby Goodnough, Sabrina Tavernise, Robert Pear and Margot Sanger-Katz, 10/26)
MedPage Today: Questioning Medicine: Breast Cancer Screening
We have sold America on the notion that breast cancer screening will reduce the risk of breast cancer death by more than 50%. And it will prevent death in more than 8% of the participants. But according to Biller-Andorno et al., the screening process on its best day can provide a relative risk reduction of 20% and, in absolute terms, one breast cancer death per 1,000 women. (Joe Weatherly, 10/23)
