Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
AP: Can An AI Version Of The Dead Help With Grief?
When Michael Bommer found out that he was terminally ill with colon cancer, he spent a lot of time with his wife, Anett, talking about what would happen after his death. She told him one of the things she’d miss most is being able to ask him questions whenever she wants because he is so well read and always shares his wisdom, Bommer recalled during a recent interview with The Associated Press at his home in a leafy Berlin suburb. That conversation sparked an idea for Bommer: Recreate his voice using artificial intelligence to survive him after he passed away. (Grieshaber and Hadero, 6/4)
AP: A Court Ruled Embryos Are Children. These Christian Couples Agree Yet Wrestle With IVF Choices
When faced with infertility, Amanda and Jeff Walker had a baby through in vitro fertilization but were left with extra embryos — and questions. Tori and Sam Earle “adopted” an embryo frozen 20 years earlier by another couple. Matthew Eppinette and his wife chose to forgo IVF out of ethical concerns and have no children of their own. All are guided by a strong Christian faith and believe life begins at or around conception. And all have wrestled with the same weighty questions: How do you build a family in a way that conforms with your beliefs? Is IVF an ethical option, especially if it creates more embryos than a couple can use? (Ungar and Stanley, 6/5)
Colorado Sun: A 5-Year-Old Was Diagnosed With Leukemia. So She Turned To Outdoor Therapy
Sarah Bailey had one thought in the sterile hospital room where the doctors were going over her daughter’s diagnosis, using words like hemoglobin and neutrophils and allopurinol: We need to get out of here. It was March 2023 and the beginning of a battle she knew she was willing to fight with 5-year-old Bellamy Korn, the youngest of her four kids. She knew she would be there for every step of the treatment that she hoped would wipe out the leukemia sickening her child. (England, 6/3)
The New York Times: They Spent Their Life Savings On Life Coaching
To an outsider, Billiejo Mullett is someone who has her head firmly screwed on. She’s smart and educated — a registered nurse who works for a medical insurance provider — and balances her career with a busy family life. In many ways, Ms. Mullett, who lives in Minoa, N.Y., seems to have things figured out, which is why she is still reeling from a life-coaching experience she describes as a “pyramid scheme” that took tens of thousands of dollars from her. “I’m an intelligent human being,” Ms. Mullett, 46, said. “We all think that it’ll never happen to us. That’s the really scary part.” (Bishop, 6/2)
Undark: From Toad Toxin To Medicine: The Promise Of 5-MeO-DMT
While the natural hallucinogen can be found in some plants and fungi, its best-known source is the Sonoran Desert toad, a greenish gray amphibian that roams the southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. To get the psychedelic, poachers squeeze the toad’s glands to secrete a milky toxin that contains 5-MeO-DMT, along with other molecules. Though the toad usually survives this process, conservationists warn that rising demand in the once obscure psychoactive compound has put pressure on the toad population. They call it yet another risk for an amphibian already threatened by dry weather, a shrinking habitat, and disease. (Medrano, 6/3)
The Washington Post: It Wasn’t Just Rats. Body Lice May Have Helped Spread Bubonic Plague
The bubonic plague pandemic of the 14th century gained infamy as much for its death toll — 25 million in Europe alone — as for the horror of the disease itself. Scientists have long blamed rat-transmitted fleas for the plague’s swift spread. But recent research points the finger at an additional culprit: body lice. (Blakemore, 6/1)
The New York Times: A Detroit Neighborhood Uses Art To Fight Air Pollution
The East Canfield Village neighborhood of Detroit is not the most likely place to encounter a monumental sculpture of an African crown glittering with gold lowrider paint and soaring high into the trees. Yet this queenly structure, designed by the land artist and activist Jordan Weber, is fitting for one of the city’s most disadvantaged and polluted neighborhoods: In place of jewels, the crown is outfitted with an air-monitoring system that will enable residents to track airborne pollutants, from Canadian wildfire smoke to emissions from a massive automotive assembly complex four blocks away. (Brown, 5/29)
