Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
Each week, KHN finds longer stories for you to sit back and enjoy. This week's selections include stories on covid-19, "booty juice," the Super Bowl, biometrics and nitrous oxide.
The Atlantic:
The Pandemic Is Heading Toward a Strange In-Between Time
The promise of summer vaccinations means that Americans can confidently plan for the end of the pandemic. The crisis is softening now, and America could crush it by autumn. What happens in between? The pandemic’s medium-term future remains the biggest outstanding question: March to May is the mystery. The outlook is not all rosy. A consensus is developing that this window may be large enough to allow for another surge in cases, Kristian Andersen, an immunology professor at the private medical institute Scripps Research, told me. In fact, he expects such a surge, he said: The increased transmissibility of the U.K. variant makes any other outcome “unrealistic.” (Meyer, 2/2)
The New York Times:
A California University Tries To Shield An Entire City From Coronavirus
The coronavirus test center on A Street was bustling on a recent morning. Michael Duey was in line, as usual, with his teenage son. Margery Hayes waited for her wife in the parking lot. Dr. Elizabeth Pham hustled her children in for a quick pit stop. Inside, each received a five-minute screening for the virus, administered and paid for by the University of California, Davis. Yet none of them is associated with the school. (Hubler, 1/30)
The Atlantic:
The Coronavirus Brazil Variant Shows The World's Vulnerability
Even in a year of horrendous suffering, what is unfolding in Brazil stands out. In the rainforest city of Manaus, home to 2 million people, bodies are reportedly being dropped into mass graves as quickly as they can be dug. Hospitals have run out of oxygen, and people with potentially treatable cases of COVID-19 are dying of asphyxia. This nature and scale of mortality have not been seen since the first months of the pandemic. This is happening in a very unlikely place. Manaus saw a devastating outbreak last April that similarly overwhelmed systems, infecting the majority of the city. Because the morbidity was so ubiquitous, many scientists believed the population had since developed a high level of immunity that would preclude another devastating wave of infection. On the whole, Brazil has already reported the second-highest death toll in the world (though half that of the United States). As the country headed into summer, the worst was thought to be behind it. (Hamblin, 2/1)
The Atlantic:
COVID-19: Fewer Americans Are Getting Tested
During the early stages of the pandemic, the big story in the United States was testing: The federal government’s initial failure to produce a working test and scale up its production meant that the country struggled for months to keep up with the virus’s spread. In May, the Harvard Global Health Institute estimated that the U.S. needed to perform 1 million tests a day to contain the outbreak by identifying cases before they spread, a mark we didn’t surpass until late September. After that, testing finally picked up speed: By late November, the seven-day daily-testing average had jumped to more than 1.8 million. But lately, daily tests have plateaued. After nearly breaking the 2 million mark in mid-January, daily tests today remain stuck at about 1.8 million. The stall-out is a mix of good and bad news: Although more testing would give us a clearer view of the outbreak, lower testing numbers reflect a pandemic in retreat, as demand for testing tends to rise with the spread of the virus. (Moser, 2/3)
The New York Times:
Even In Poorer Neighborhoods, The Wealthy Are Lining Up For Vaccines
As soon as this city began offering Covid vaccines to residents 65 and older, George Jones, whose nonprofit agency runs a medical clinic, noticed something striking. “Suddenly our clinic was full of white people,” said Mr. Jones, the head of Bread for the City, which provides services to the poor. “We’d never had that before. We serve people who are disproportionately African-American.” (Goodnough and Hoffman, 2/2)
FierceHealthcare:
One Year Of COVID-19: Providence Infectious Disease Expert Shares Lessons Learned From The Front Lines
Rebecca Bartles got the call late in the day on Jan. 20, 2020: One of the first novel coronavirus cases to arrive in the U.S. had shown up at Providence health system in Washington. Bartles, who leads infection prevention efforts for the entire 51-hospital Providence health system, believed Providence was ready to respond after exercises based on previous outbreaks of Ebola and H1N1. What caught her completely off-guard? The breakdown in the hospital supply chain across the U.S. that left doctors and nurses dangerously exposed to the virus. (Landi, 2/1)
The New York Times:
Top E.U. Official Comes Under Fire In Vaccine Wars
On paper, Ursula von der Leyen is uniquely qualified to lead the European Union through the coronavirus crisis. A medical doctor with a masters in public health, the president of the European Commission has the backing of her native Germany as well as France, a powerful combination that catapulted her to the vaunted role less than two years ago. But her handling of a growing crisis over vaccine supply shortages to the European Union, which culminated in a major gaffe that threatened to upend delicate relations with Britain, a former member of the bloc, has shaken her steely image and pitted senior bureaucrats — the very people she depends on — against her. (Stevis-Gridneff and Erlanger, 2/1)
Also —
Salt Lake Tribune:
Utah ‘Troubled-Teen’ Centers Have Used ‘Booty Juice’ To Sedate Kids, A Practice Outlawed In Other States
When social workers in Oregon’s foster care system sent a 14-year-old to Utah, they were trying to find a place that could help. But instead the girl, who has an intellectual and developmental disability, endured an increasingly difficult stay at Provo Canyon School.
Over roughly three months, employees pinned down her arms and legs nearly 30 times, some restraints lasting as long as a half-hour. Fellow students beat her up at least four times, including once when she was punched in the face while she was asleep. Staff injected the girl with sedatives 17 times — a number so alarming that child welfare officials from Oregon flew in to investigate. Those officials got her on a plane and took her back to Oregon in March 2019. (Miller, 2/4)
The Washington Post:
Here’s What Players Eat Before, During And After The Super Bowl
Over the past 20 years, there has been a huge focus on the importance of nutrition for elite athletes. Hundreds of clinical studies support the importance of food for stamina, endurance and postgame recovery. The National Football League has 27 full-time dietitians who put that research into play by offering customized plans based on an athlete’s individual needs. {Buccaneers quarterback Tom] Brady’s diet is famously part of his brand. ... At age 25, [Patrick] Mahomes is almost 20 years younger than Brady and takes a less-restrictive approach to diet, though the Chiefs quarterback is not eating ketchup all the time. (Rosenbloom, 2/3)
The Washington Post:
As Biometrics Boom, Who Owns Athletes’ Health Data?
A smart pill detects an athlete’s body temperature and transmits it to an external device, so coaches can look for spikes that might impair performance. Biosensors measure a cyclist’s glucose to help optimize fuel levels. Smart goggles allow a swimmer to monitor speed, heart rate and stroke rate. And, of course, a smart ring conveys the most valuable information in sports, at least in 2021: whether an athlete might be infected with the coronavirus. Data collection in sports is booming, ushering in an era of the “hyperquantified athlete,” as a recent report from consulting giant Deloitte described it. (Busca, 2/2)
The New York Times:
Nitrous Nation: A Party Drug Endures
For decades, nitrous oxide has been widespread at raves and music festivals, used as a quick buzz. The drug doesn’t have the death toll of the opiate disaster or the widespread popularity of marijuana, but it’s widely sold — legally — all over the country, though its consumption outside medical facilities is illegal in many states. But the inhalant’s use and misuse seems to be on the rise, fueled by the stress and isolation of the coronavirus pandemic. It’s also in the spotlight this week after the death of Tony Hsieh at 46, the former chief executive of the online shoe empire Zappos, in a house fire in November. (Marcus, 1/30)