Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
The New York Times: Why The Coronavirus Pandemic Is A Personal Health Wake-Up Call
The pandemic has shed a blinding light on too many Americans’ failure to follow the well-established scientific principles of personal health and well-being. There are several reasons this country, one of the world’s richest and most highly developed, has suffered much higher rates of Covid-19 infections and deaths than many poorer and less well-equipped populations. Older Americans have been particularly hard hit by this novel coronavirus. When cases surged at the end of last year, Covid-19 became the nation’s leading cause of death, deadlier than heart disease and cancer. (Brody, 3/15)
The Washington Post: 17 Students — From Kindergartner To High School Senior — On What They Learned About School And Life During The Pandemic
Recently, we interviewed students from across the country about their educational experiences, and their lives, during the pandemic. Some of our questions were about school, but others were about what students have learned more broadly — about themselves, their families, their teachers and their country. The students we spoke to have struggled with virtual learning or socially distanced classrooms, but they’ve also learned to adapt — in some cases, better than the adults. And parents: As much as they’re driving you nuts, you’re making them crazy, too. (Cogan, 3/16)
The New York Times: When Your Covid-19 Test Comes Back Positive While Traveling
Late last year, Jose Arellano, a U.S. Navy veteran, and his wife, Gloria, traveled 2,000 miles from home to the resort town of Oaxaca, Mexico, to use up about $400 in plane tickets they had purchased at the start of the pandemic. The couple used masks, face shields and disinfectant, but not even a week into the trip, Mr. Arellano, 56, who had asthma, and then Mrs. Arellano, 54, began to get headaches and run a fever. They had both contracted the coronavirus and were battling it in a place where they had no doctors or health insurance, and no nearby family or friends to offer support. (Schwartz, 3/17)
USA Today: COVID Treatments Have Improved, But More Rigorous Study, Trials Needed
Far fewer people are dying from COVID-19 today than in January, but more than 1,000 Americans die from the disease every day – alone at home or in hospitals, gasping for air, suffering heart attacks or slipping silently away. Though treatment for the sickest patients has improved since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic a year ago, roughly 20% of patients sick enough to be hospitalized still end up in intensive care – a figure that hasn't changed in the past year, said Kevin Tracey, a neurosurgeon and president and CEO of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, the research arm of Northwell Health, New York’s largest health care provider. (Weintraub, 3/14)
The New York Times: 14 Lessons For The Next Pandemic
One year. More than 500,000 dead. What did the United States do wrong in handling Covid-19? What needs to be rethought? We asked scientists, public health experts and health advocates to tell us about mistakes, missed chances and oversights — and how to prepare for the next pandemic. Responses are edited for length and clarity. (3/15)
Bloomberg: Covid-19 Was Far Deadlier Than The 1957 And 1968 Flu Pandemics
Why the difference? Have we become too careful and fearful, or were people too insensitive to death back in that higher-mortality-rate era? Are we a bunch of sheeple being led to our doom by Bill Gates and the rest of the illuminati? Or is it that, especially in the case of that mass experiment in working and schooling from home, we have options that didn’t exist in the 1950s or 1960s that we chose to exercise out of legitimate fear that things could turn out much worse than they have? Those are complicated questions. Here’s one simple, if partial, answer: The “1957-1958 Pandemic” didn’t actually kill 116,000 Americans and the “1968 Pandemic” didn’t kill 100,000. (Fox, 3/11)
NBC News: Puerto Rico Enacted Strict Covid Measures. It Paid Off, And It's A Lesson For The Mainland.
Janny Rodriguez, 47, a community leader in the neighborhood of Barreal in Peñuelas, Puerto Rico, is an operations supervisor at an asphalt plant. During the height of the pandemic last March, he couldn't stop working, since he's one of a few workers tasked with maintaining the composite material liquid. The father of three was worried about potentially exposing his oldest son to the virus, since he suffers from a lung condition, or his elderly mother who lives next door to him. After all, the World Health Organization had just declared Covid-19 a pandemic. (Acevedo, 3/15)
Also —
The New York Times: Rosalind Cartwright, Psychologist And ‘Queen Of Dreams,’ Dies At 98
In 1999, Rosalind D. Cartwright, a sleep expert, testified for the defense in the murder trial of a man who had arisen from his bed early one night, gathered up tools to fix his pool’s filter pump, stabbed his beloved wife to death, rolled her into the pool and gone back to bed. When he was awakened by the police, he said he had no memory of his actions. His lawyers argued that the man, who had no motive to kill his wife, had been sleepwalking, and therefore was in an unconscious state and not responsible for his behavior. Dr. Cartwright, a renowned sleep researcher who a decade earlier had successfully served as a witness for the defense in a similar case (she worked pro bono in both trials), agreed. (Green, 3/15)
The Washington Post: ‘Not What I Consented To’: When A Partner Tries To Control The Other’s Choice About Pregnancy
Sometimes he could be abusive, but the man she lived with had always honored her wish to use birth control. One night, though, he didn’t. The Los Angeles woman, then 22, tried to get Plan B, “the morning-after pill,” but was refused at the clinic because she owed money to the state medical system. And she was pregnant. Considering abortion made her feel guilty. Her boyfriend made it worse: “What kind of human being are you?” he taunted. (Glicksman, 3/14)
Stat: Nazi Anatomical Drawings Are Donated In Effort To Address Ethical Quandary
The drawings in the anatomical atlas are seen as unparalleled in their detail of winding nerves and minute blood vessels, and are still used today in medical education and surgery. But the Pernkopf Atlas of Topographical and Applied Human Anatomy, first published around 1940, comes with a tainted, gruesome history: Many of the drawings were based in part on the bodies of people executed by the Nazis, and the Viennese medical illustrators were Nazis themselves. (Sohn, 3/16)
