Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
The New York Times: When Things Aren’t OK With A Child’s Mental Health
Last week, to write about the risks of summer — the recurring safety issues of children being out in the sun, or near the water, I talked to safety-minded pediatric emergency room doctors about what was worrying them, as they thought about the children they might be seeing during their shifts over the coming weeks, and I specified that I wasn’t asking about Covid-19 infection — I was asking about other dangers to children, in this summer shadowed by that virus. But among their concerns about drownings and fractures, the emergency room doctors kept bringing up mental health as a worry. At a time when we are all definitely not safe and not OK, we have to find and help the children who are hurting most. (Klass, 8/10)
The New York Times: What Happens To Viral Particles On The Subway
Many New Yorkers are avoiding the subway, fearful of jostling with strangers in crowded cars. Masks and social distancing are essential, but good air flow is also key to reducing the risk of exposure to the coronavirus. (Grondahl, Goldbaum and White, 8/10)
The New York Times: Quarantine Envy Got You Down? You’re Not Alone
When the coronavirus hit France, Leila Slimani, a popular French-Moroccan novelist, and her family left Paris for their country home. Once there, Ms. Slimani began writing a quarantine diary for the newspaper Le Monde. The response, especially from people in teeny Parisian apartments, was so scathing, she apparently abandoned the series. When the billionaire David Geffen posted photos of his mega-yacht on Instagram while he quarantined in the Grenadines, the backlash led him to turn his account private. (Wartik, 8/10)
The New York Times: Why I’m Obsessed With Patients’ Medical Bills
My reporting obsession with medical bills started with a bandage. A very, very expensive bandage. Four years ago, before I worked for The New York Times, a reader emailed me a surprising story. He had taken his 1-year-old daughter to the emergency room because after her nails were clipped a bit too short, her finger started spurting blood. The little girl was fine, and received a disposable bandage that fell off on the car ride home. (Kliff, 8/7)
The Washington Post: Coronavirus Inequality: In Brazil, Poor Die Of Covid-19 At Greater Rate Than Wealthy
Two men were going to the hospital, unsure of whether they’d return. It was April, when Brazil’s worst fears about the novel coronavirus were beginning to be realized. The disease had started to kill all over the country. Now it had come for them, too. Tiago Lemos knew his lungs were shot. Rodrigo Guedes could no longer stand. The coronavirus has played a game of Roulette across the world: Who lives? Who dies? In most countries, a familiar set of variables — age, sex, preexisting conditions — has helped make at least some sense of the confounding disease. But in Brazil, one of the most unequal countries in the world, another crucial deciding factor has been class. The poor are dying at a much higher rate than the wealthy. (McCoy and Traiano, 8/10)
AP: Extreme Poverty Rises And A Generation Sees Future Slip Away
As a domestic worker, Amsale Hailemariam knew from the inside out the luxury villas that had grown up around her simple shelter of raw metal and plastic sheeting. And in them, she saw how her country, Ethiopia, had transformed. The single mother told herself, “Oh God, a day will come when my life will be changed, too.” The key lay in her daughter, just months from a career in public health, who studied how to battle the illnesses of want and hunger. Then a virus mentioned in none of her textbooks arrived, and dreams faded for families, and entire countries, like theirs. Decades of progress in one of modern history’s greatest achievements, the fight against extreme poverty, are in danger of slipping away because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The world could see its first increase in extreme poverty in 22 years, further sharpening social inequities. (Meseret and Anna, 8/10)
Also —
Politico: 55 Things You Need To Know About Kamala Harris
What do voters need to know about the woman who sits on the cusp of breaking one of the highest glass ceilings in American life? Here, culled from books, extensive media coverage and the archives of POLITICO, is a quick primer on the life of Kamala Devi Harris, the trailblazing prosecutor-turned-senator who in just a few months’ time could be a heartbeat away from the presidency. (Kim and Stanton, 8/11)
The New York Times: AIDS Quilts For An Artist And His Partner, Sewn During A New Pandemic
Since the fall of 2019, six women, some from the art world, others retired social workers, had labored on two AIDS quilts devoted to the memories of the artist David Wojnarowicz and his partner, Tom Rauffenbart. The women converged from all over New York City on the neighborhood of Washington Heights, at the home of Anita Vitale, who had met Mr. Rauffenbart, a fellow social worker, in the 1980s. Then, in mid-March, in what you might call a sad cosmic coincidence, their work was interrupted by the arrival on the scene of another pandemic. (Boucher, 8/10)
MarketWatch: ‘I Just Wished At One Point There Could Be A Fire’—Some Insight Into The Emotional Turmoil Of Downsizing
Ever since I wrote the viral 2017 Next Avenue post, “Sorry, Nobody Wants Your Parents’ Stuff,” I’ve been a little obsessed with Americans’ love/hate relationship with their possessions and downsizing. So, I was fascinated to read University of Kansas sociology and gerontology professor David J. Ekerdt’s new book, “Downsizing: Confronting Our Possessions in Later Life,” and to have a chance to interview him about it. Ekerdt has actually conducted exhaustive interviews with Americans over 50 about their experiences shedding their stuff. (Eisenberg, 8/13)
The Washington Post: Former Washington Wide Receiver Josh Morgan Donates Kidney To Brother During Pandemic
Lawanda Morgan received some of the best news of her life but wasn’t able to fully enjoy it. The same discovery that illuminated a path that could save one son’s life meant putting another son in harm’s way. Lawanda had watched Daniel Morgan suffer for years from a kidney disease that originally was misdiagnosed as high blood pressure, requiring dialysis three times per week, four hours at a time. A dialysis technician mentioned a program that led Morgan to the MedStar Georgetown Transplant Institute. That eventually led to Daniel and his brother Josh, a former NFL wide receiver who played two seasons with Washington after starring at Virginia Tech, ending up on a pair of operating tables in March. (Copeland, 8/11)
