Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
Newsweek: World's Best Hospitals 2022
The hospitals that have fared best during the pandemic are those that have learned to work faster by communicating better and breaking down internal silos, according to Dr. Gregory Katz, professor of Innovation & Value in Health at the University of Paris School of Medicine: "A critical facilitator of velocity is broad participation from hospital teams. If there is one thing we take away from our fight against COVID-19, it's the value of preparation. For hospital leaders, it's all about choice, not chance." ... This year's rankings represent an expanded universe, with three new countries on the list—Colombia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates—bringing the total to over 2,200 hospitals in 27 countries.
The New York Times: How Long Should It Take To Grieve? Psychiatry Has Come Up With An Answer.
After more than a decade of argument, psychiatry’s most powerful body in the United States added a new disorder this week to its diagnostic manual: prolonged grief. The decision marks an end to a long debate within the field of mental health, steering researchers and clinicians to view intense grief as a target for medical treatment, at a moment when many Americans are overwhelmed by loss. (Barry, 3/18)
The New York Times: Demand For This Toad’s Psychedelic Venom Is Booming. Some Warn That’s Bad For The Toad.
After multiple combat tours as a Navy SEAL, Marcus Capone tried talk therapy. Brain-injury clinics. Prescription drugs. Nothing worked to ease his crippling depression and anxiety. Then he smoked the venom of the Sonoran desert toad. “I saw why they call this the ‘God molecule’ after I got a full central nervous system reset,” said Mr. Capone, 45, who now runs a nonprofit with his wife helping hundreds of other Special Operations veterans access toad medicine. (Romero, 3/20)
ABC News: What To Know About Egg Freezing — From When To Do It, To How Much It Costs
Egg freezing -- a process that involves collection, freezing and storage of a woman's eggs with the intention to use at a later time for pregnancy -- is more widely available than it was even five or 10 years ago, but it is still a complicated decision for many women. There is the cost -- often thousands of dollars -- as well as the fact that a woman's biological clock keeps ticking even amid egg freezing. (Kindelan and Demirel, 3/23)
The New York Times: She Starved And Nearly Died On Guardian’s Watch, Family Says
Bonnie Lee Apple’s family knew she was not well. Her ex-husband had complained to Ms. Apple’s court-appointed guardian, who has been in charge of her care since a 2018 aneurysm left her moderately brain-damaged, that she had lost considerable weight. Whenever her twin sister went to her apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Ms. Apple, 66, was covered in blankets or sheets. Health aides said she was sleeping. When Ms. Apple’s 18-year-old daughter visited in early February, she thought her mother was near death. (Newman, 3/24)
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The Wall Street Journal: The Pandemic Is Two Years Old. Baseball’s Vaccination Problem Is Just Beginning.
Major League Baseball players have been more reluctant to take the Covid-19 vaccine than their counterparts in any of the other American professional sports. Now that decision could have a significant impact on how the upcoming season unfolds. Because of Canadian border restrictions, unvaccinated players won’t be allowed to enter the country to play against the Toronto Blue Jays. They won’t be paid or receive service time for any games missed because of their vaccination status under the industry’s new labor contract, which the owners and players’ union agreed to last week. The rule will, for the first time, provide a clear glimpse into how many players have declined to take the shots. (Diamond, 3/18)
The New York Times: Trying To Solve A Covid Mystery: Africa’s Low Death Rates
There are no Covid fears here. The district’s Covid-19 response center has registered just 11 cases since the start of the pandemic, and no deaths. At the regional hospital, the wards are packed — with malaria patients. The door to the Covid isolation ward is bolted shut and overgrown with weeds. People cram together for weddings, soccer matches, concerts, with no masks in sight. Sierra Leone, a nation of eight million on the coast of Western Africa, feels like a land inexplicably spared as a plague passed overhead. What has happened — or hasn’t happened — here and in much of sub-Saharan Africa is a great mystery of the pandemic. (Nolen, 3/23)
The New York Times: ‘He Goes Where The Fire Is’: A Virus Hunter In The Wuhan Market
As soon as Edward Holmes saw the dark-ringed eyes of the raccoon dogs staring at him through the bars of the iron cage, he knew he had to capture the moment. It was October 2014. Dr. Holmes, a biologist at the University of Sydney, had come to China to survey hundreds of species of animals, looking for new types of viruses. (Zimmer, 3/21)
