Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
Each week, KFF Health News finds longer stories for you to enjoy. Today's selections are on covid, RFK Jr., Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and more.
AP:
Meet The Americans Who Still Take COVID-19 Precautions Seriously
Susan Scarbro stares down a bowling lane at the distant pins. She hears a sound that breaks her focus. Was that a cough? Will her mask protect her? COVID-19 remains a very present threat for the 55-year-old. Scarbro has multiple immune disorders, making her vulnerable to infection. “Any minute anybody could cough, just incidentally,” said Scarbro, who lives in Sunset Beach, North Carolina. “And that cough could be the one thing that could make me sick.” (Bose and Johnson, 1/16)
Roll Call:
How RFK Jr. Drove Mistrust Of A Cancer Prevention Vaccine
President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead HHS has a long history of discounting and peddling misinformation about the HPV vaccine. (Hellmann, 1/16)
NPR:
On Apache Lands, Progress In A Long War Against Ticks And The Disease They Spread
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, the deadliest tick-borne disease in the U.S., is a big problem on tribal lands in the Southwest. A community-led response on Apache lands in Arizona is helping save lives. (Huang, 1/15)
Bloomberg:
Patients Detained, Denied Care at Hospitals Funded by World Bank
Billions of taxpayer dollars invested in for-profit facilities from Africa to Asia were supposed to improve access to healthcare. But stories of abuses have piled up. (Finch, Taggart and Kocieniewski, 1/16)
Undark:
The Pursuit Of Death On Psychiatric Grounds
In recent years, Dutch psychiatrists have seen a steep upswing in requests for medical assistance in dying, or MAID, on psychiatric grounds, rising from an average of about 30 per year from 2012 to 2018 to 895 in 2023 — though some research suggests those numbers are likely an undercount. (Just a fraction of these requests were granted and pursued.) Some clinicians are concerned about the number of young people seeking the procedure, and want to put more guardrails in place, like a higher age requirement. Others, meanwhile, are calling for fewer barriers, arguing that euthanasia is the most humane approach when a patient is experiencing treatment-resistant mental anguish. (Klotz, 1/15)
