Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
Stat: In Cancer Care, Patients With Disabilities Face False Assumptions
People with disabilities often spend a lot of time navigating bias and educating others about their condition. When it comes to cancer, assumptions made by their doctors can undermine their care even before it starts. The potential for pitfalls is vast. Clinicians might assume a woman who uses a wheelchair isn’t sexually active so doesn’t need to be tested for HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer. They might order a mammogram to screen for breast cancer without considering the fact that the test requires someone who uses a wheelchair to stand. Imaging scans may be unworkable for someone unable to hold their limbs still because of cerebral palsy. (Cooney, 12/13)
The New York Times: How Unconscious Bias in Health Care Puts Pregnant Black Women at Higher Risk
Shakima Tozay was 37 years old and six months pregnant when a nurse, checking the fetal heart rate of the baby boy she was carrying, referred to him as “a hoodlum.” Ms. Tozay, a social worker, froze. She had just been hospitalized at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Wash., with pre-eclampsia, a life-threatening complication of pregnancy, and she is Black. “A ‘hoodlum’?” she said. “Why would you call him that?” The fetus was 14 inches long and weighed little more than a box of chocolates. A doctor who came into the room downplayed the comment, saying the nurse was just kidding, but that only hurt Ms. Tozay more. (Rabin, 12/12)
The New York Times: In Los Angeles, The ‘Coroner To The Stars’ Has The Last Word
In most places, it is a trade of little glamour. Transporting bodies, performing autopsies — the role of a coroner’s office tends to be dismissed as a macabre necessity. But this is Los Angeles, where the list of those who have died unexpectedly is iconic: Marilyn Monroe. The Notorious B.I.G. Whitney Houston. Michael Jackson. (Knoll, 12/10)
The New York Times: Losing Hair, Gaining Followers
Zeph Sanders was 20 when his hair began to fall out. As it thinned from the density of AstroTurf to spare wisps, he hid his head under a beanie before logging on to play video games on the livestreaming platform Twitch. “I started getting people in the comments like, ‘Bro, where’s your hair?’” Mr. Sanders, now 27, said on a recent video call from his home in Orange County, Calif. “I felt a little bit more insecure as the days went on. ”Last year Mr. Sanders allowed a glimpse of his bare scalp in a video he posted to TikTok. It took off, eventually passing four million views. Hundreds of commenters suggested supposedly miraculous regrowth methods, which Mr. Sanders began trying out in his windowless bathroom, with his iPhone camera rolling. (Holtermann, 12/13)
The Washington Post: Smithsonian Took Brains From Dozens Of DC’s Most Marginalized Residents
A 59-year-old Black woman died of epilepsy in October 1903 at the Washington Asylum Hospital, an institution that housed the District’s indigent. Almost five months later, tuberculosis killed a 21-month-old Black toddler at Children’s Hospital in D.C. The next month, an 11-year-old White boy died of a lung condition at Children’s. Upon their deaths, one of the Smithsonian Institution’s top anthropologists, Ales Hrdlicka, enlisted the local institutions and doctors to help him remove their brains to build a “racial brain collection.” Hrdlicka, who sought brains and other body parts to prove now-debunked theories on racial differences, was taking advantage of the District’s most vulnerable residents, records show. (Dungca and Healy, 12/14)
The Wall Street Journal: Pfizer Helped Save The World With Covid Vaccines. Now It Needs To Right Itself
Thousands of Pfizer employees from around the world were watching through their computer screens in October when Chief Executive Albert Bourla and other executives at the giant drugmaker stepped onto a stage for a company town hall. Pfizer had announced several days earlier it was embarking on a $3.5 billion cost-cutting effort, including layoffs. Bourla and the other executives explained the company was positioning for growth. “Future is bright…but you might get fired,” one employee wrote in the video’s chat room, which the company had left open. “Dumpster fires are [always] bright,” read another message. (Hopkins, 12/14)
Reuters: As UK Dental System Decays, Surging Numbers Seek Treatment Abroad
Once Marion Parks found out she needed intensive dental work, the 55-year-old decided her best course of action was to leave her small English village to have implants — in Istanbul. Parks is one of thousands of British people going abroad for dentistry. Where once they travelled for cosmetic work to achieve the perfect smile, now many are going for basic dental treatment that they say they cannot get in Britain. (Ravikumar and Kucukgocmen, 12/11)
