Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
Each week, KFF Health News finds longer stories for you to enjoy. Today's selections include stories on midwifery, drug abuse, the Golden Gate Bridge, tattoos, space burial, and more.
The Washington Post:
A Maryland Home Birth Midwife With A Felony Record Faces Scrutiny After A Baby Dies
Tori DiVincenzo lay in bed at home, dazed and bleeding. She had pushed for hours under the watch of a veteran midwife, only to deliver her daughter silent and still. On this November afternoon in 2021, Sophie Rose DiVincenzo was being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. First responders milled about the house in Calvert County, Md. DiVincenzo’s midwife, Karen Carr, and her assistant drained the birthing pool, stripped the stained bedsheets and ran a load of laundry. (Brittain, 11/14)
The New York Times:
‘A Monster’: Super Meth And Other Drugs Push Crisis Beyond Opioids
Millions of U.S. drug users now are addicted to several substances, not just opioids like fentanyl and heroin. The shift is making treatment far more difficult. (Hoffman, 11/13)
The New York Times:
What The Golden Gate Is (Finally) Doing About Suicides
After years of pressure from victims’ families, the installation of $217 million in steel netting is almost complete. (Branch, 11/5)
The New York Times:
They Started Playing Football As Young As 6. They Died In Their Teens and Twenties With C.T.E.
They started playing football as kids, began to suffer mentally and died before 30. Researchers found they had C.T.E., the brain disease linked to hits to the head. If their families could go back, would they still let them play? (Bracken, Branch, Laffin, Lieberman and Ward, 11/16)
The Washington Post:
How CDC’s New Director Is Trying To Regain Trust Shattered By Covid
The new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had spent days on television and social media urging Americans to get the updated coronavirus vaccine. The new shot is the most effective protection for the looming virus season, she said. And it’s free. But by the afternoon of Sept. 21, it was becoming clear to Mandy Cohen that the nine-day-old vaccine rollout was stumbling, with many Americans unable to promptly get shots at pharmacies, insurers making erroneous claims about who would have to pay, and little explanation from the government. (Sun and Diamond, 11/12)
ProPublica:
A Knoxville Detention Center Illegally Locks Kids Up Alone
The Richard L. Bean Juvenile Service Center has been punishing kids with seclusion more than any other facility in Tennessee. And as the laws and rules on how to treat kids changed, the facility failed to keep up. (Pfleger, 11/16)
The New York Times:
V.A. Recruits Millionth Veteran For Million Veteran Program Genetic Database
On Saturday, after a 12-year effort, the Department of Veterans Affairs reached a long-term goal — it enrolled the millionth veteran in a genetic database, the Million Veteran Program. According to the V.A., the Million Veteran Program is the largest such database in the world. It includes not only genetic information but also is linked to the department’s electronic medical records and even contains records of diet and environmental exposure. (Kolata, 11/15)
The Washington Post:
‘Aging Is A Disease’: Inside The Drive To Postpone Death Indefinitely
Longevity has become an industry, a subject of bestsellers, podcasts and newsletters. But is a life meted out in metrics, often for a price, worth it? (Heller, 11/6)
The New York Times:
Their Final Wish? A Burial In Space
There are two ways to contemplate the question Where do we go when we die? One is philosophical, ultimately unanswerable; the other is logistical. Humans, being human, have tended to see them as being intertwined: The many traditions we’ve devised for handling our remains are meant to honor the selves that left those bodies behind. The seven people pictured here have chosen to send their ashes, or in some cases a sample of their DNA, into outer space. (Litovsky and Mooallem, 11/7)
The Wall Street Journal:
That Scannable Spotify Tattoo Sounded Like A Good Idea At The Time
It’s becoming popular to get inked with a barcode so you can flash your flesh to turn on music. But the codes can stop working as skin sags and ink fades. (Graham, 11/15)
