Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
San Francisco Chronicle: A California Hospital Opened A Critical Care Unit For Kids. Then Four Died
Eight years ago, hospital leaders at John Muir Health and Stanford donned tuxedos, gowns and feathered masks. At a masquerade-themed gala, they mingled with donors to raise money for a new unit that would provide care for critically ill children in the East Bay. (Dizikes, Gafni and Kopf, 12/1)
The Washington Post: Less Attractive, Less Picky: How Mating Is Changing In A Hotter World
In the animal world, the selection of certain traits has long been the biggest driver in how some sexual species will evolve. If a trait, behavior or dance will help attract or compete for a mate, they’ll do it even if it’s not that useful otherwise. But as our planet warms to unthinkable temperatures, some are forced to rethink their dating habits. Those adjustments come in many forms. A lot of animals are giving up attractive traits, while others are keeping those characteristics and finding different ways to conserve energy. Some animals are adjusting by altogether shifting the attributes they value in a mate. And although the research is very limited, there is even some evidence suggesting that human mating habits are changing in a warming world too. (Patel, 11/28)
The New York Times: What It Really Takes to Breastfeed a Baby
To many parents, the gulf between public health goals and reality seemed to widen last summer when the A.A.P. updated its breastfeeding recommendations, saying that it supported breastfeeding for two years or more, if it’s mutually desired by mother and child. The organization called for changes to help make breastfeeding possible, such as guaranteed paid leave, and sought to destigmatize extended breastfeeding for those who choose it. But given that a majority of parents in the United States already struggled to make it to one year of breastfeeding, as the A.A.P. previously recommended, some saw the mere suggestion of continuing to two years as out of touch. (Pearson, 11/30)
The Washington Post: A HIIT Workout For Astronauts Can Benefit Non-Space Travelers, Too
Exercise like an astronaut and you might avoid the unhealthy effects of sitting too much, according to recent studies about the benefits of space workouts. The research, which involved astronauts on the International Space Station and bed-bound volunteers in Houston, suggest that the right mix of scientifically tested exercises can stave off undesirable physical consequences from being weightless on the space station — or inactive for long hours on Earth. (Reynolds, 11/30)
Stat: To Treat Huntington's, Scientists Return To Overlooked Clues
In the spring of 1981, a geneticist from Indianapolis and a neurologist from Chicago got in a car and for three days they crisscrossed the yellowing cornfields of Iowa. Every now and then, they stopped at a house to draw blood from the inhabitants — more than 30 members of one extended family spread across the state. (Molteni, 11/30)
NPR: Bills Targeting Trans Youth Are Growing More Common — And Radically Reshaping Lives
When Dylan Brandt looks back on the time before he started receiving gender-affirming care, he remembers feeling trapped "in a pretty bad place." He wasn't comfortable leaving the house, and he struggled with anxiety and depression. It was right around his 15th birthday that Brandt began hormone therapy. He says the treatment was "lifesaving." (Nakajima and Hanzhang Jin, 11/28)
NPR: Teen Vaping Gets A Harder Look By FDA And States
Samuel Rose says he was raised by a devoted single mom who warned all her seven children to avoid drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. But when his high school friend urged him to try making vapor rings with a Juul e-cigarette five years ago, Rose figured there was no danger — vaping was billed as a healthier alternative to smoking. (Noguchi, 11/29)
The Washington Post: Former Surgeon General Faces His Wife’s Cancer — And The ‘Trump Effect’
Former surgeon general Jerome Adams and his wife, Lacey, often find themselves talking about what they have named the “Trump Effect.” It followed them from Washington to their home in the Indianapolis suburbs. They felt it when he was exploring jobs in academia, where he would receive polite rejections from university officials who worried that someone who served in the administration of the former president would be badly received by their left-leaning student bodies. They felt it when corporations decided he was too tainted to employ. (Roig-Franzia, 11/25)
The New York Times: Can This Man Stop Lying?
Christopher Massimine, whose compulsive lying derailed a promising career in theater, maintains that it’s a mental illness that has dogged him since childhood. (Barry, 11/29)
