Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
The Atlantic: America’s Fall Booster Plan Has A Fatal Paradox
In terms of both content and timing, the fall shot will be one of the most important COVID vaccines offered to Americans since the initial doses. Since SARS-CoV-2 first collided with the human population nearly three years ago, it’s shape-shifted. The coronavirus is now better at infecting us and is a pretty meh match for the original shots that Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson produced. An updated vaccine should rejuvenate our defenses, prodding our antibody levels to soar and our B cells and T cells to relearn the virus’s visage. (Wu, 8/25)
The New Republic: This Is How Criminalizing Abortion Providers Shatters Families
Gary Raymond and his mother, Elizabeth, usually wouldn’t sit down at the table for breakfast. It was 1963; he was in seventh grade and usually just grabbed something quick before rushing off to class. When his mom suggested they take a seat, Gary knew that something was wrong. His father, Sherwin, hadn’t come home last night, his mother began, and then handed him the morning copy of their local Bergen Record. “I remember unfolding that and seeing a picture of my father on the front page, top of the front page,” Gary said almost six decades later, now a retired social worker who lives in Washington, D.C. “She said he’d been arrested for performing abortions.” He had no idea what an abortion was. (Herchenroeder, 9/6)
AP: Candy, Cash, Gifts: How Rewards Help Recovery From Addiction
Harold Lewis has been fighting drug addiction for years, but only recently started thinking recovery could be fun. The 59-year-old former cook earned small prizes — candy, gum, gift cards, sunglasses and headphones — for attending meetings and staying in treatment for opioid addiction during a 12-week program in Bridgeport, Connecticut. “Recovery should be fun because you’re getting your life back,” Lewis said. For an increasing number of Americans, addiction treatment involves not only hard work, but also earning rewards — sometimes totaling $500 — for negative drug tests or showing up for counseling or group meetings. (Johnson, 9/7)
The Washington Post: A Suicidal Son, An Iconic Bridge And The Struggle To Keep People From Jumping
On the morning Cheryl Rogers found her son missing, her mind quickly turned to the bridge. “No, please no,” she thought. “I can’t do this again.” A call from police soon confirmed her fears. A worker had found their family’s van abandoned in the middle of the westbound span of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. As authorities moved to tow it, they looked up and saw Rogers’s 37-year-old son standing on a suspension cable over the water. (Wan, 9/7)
The New York Times: The Quiet Cost Of Family Caregiving
At first, Dana Guthrie thought she could help care for her parents, whose health had begun to decline, and still hold onto her job administering a busy dental practice in Plant City, Fla. “It was a great-paying job and I didn’t want to lose it,” Ms. Guthrie, 59, recalled recently. So she tried shifting to a four-day schedule, working evenings to keep up with the office demands, and she began spending a few nights a week at her parents’ home instead of her own nearby. Ultimately, though, her mother’s liver disease progressed and her father was diagnosed with dementia. The family learned that the cost of hiring home aides for two ailing 82-year-olds exceeded even a middle-class retirement income and savings. “They really needed me,” Ms. Guthrie said. In 2016, she left her job “and moved in full time.” (Span, 9/4)
The Wall Street Journal: Three Findings That Changed The Way We Think About Sex
Alfred Kinsey, the famed sexologist, founded the organization in 1947. He’d started studying human sexuality years earlier, when the university asked him to teach a course on marriage and family. To prepare, he looked for scientific research on human sexual behavior. Finding little, he conducted his own, and in the process changed the way we think about our sex lives. (Bernstein, 9/7)
The Boston Globe's Spotlight: A Celebrated New Hampshire Surgeon Set A Record For Malpractice Settlements
From the day he first stepped into the hospital, Dr. Yvon Baribeau had the makings of a star. In the operating rooms at Catholic Medical Center, where he started working three decades ago, he was a forceful presence — tall, self-assured, ambitious, tireless, a cardiac specialist who relished the toughest cases and was gifted, peers noted, with “natural” hands that moved swiftly and smoothly through long hours of surgery. (Ostriker, Fernandes, Kowalczyk, Saltzman and Wen, 9/7)
The Boston Globe's Spotlight: Alarmed Doctors At Catholic Medical Center Tried To Get Dr. Baribeau Barred From Surgery. Hospital Leaders Resisted.
Alarmed doctors at Manchester's Catholic Medical Center tried to get a troubled colleague barred from surgery. But hospital leaders resisted. Then came the "summer of death." (Fernandes, Kowalczyk, Ostriker and Saltzman, 9/8)
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The Washington Post: The Logistics Of Death Can Be Overwhelming. New Apps Can Offer Help
What do you do after someone dies? Most people expect to deal with intense grief, but they might not realize how many logistical details arise after a death. Those tasks can feel overwhelming: deciding who to call, learning where to get death certificates, planning memorials and navigating finances. ... Now, new apps and websites with names such as Cake, Lantern and Empathy exist to help people navigate the tumult and confusion after a loss, offering tools that range from organized checklists for the early days of funeral planning to resources for later concerns such as closing a deceased person’s credit card account or finding a home for the deceased person’s pet. (Laurenzi, 9/4)
Fortune: 7 Tips For Getting More Out Of Your iPhone’s Health App
From analyzing your sleep patterns to monitoring an aging parent’s steadiness, your iPhone’s health app can be a valuable way to track and share important health information. Apple’s highly customizable app allows you to pick and choose which health categories are most important to you and, in some cases, prompt you to make various lifestyle choices. Here’s a closer look at how to use some of the best features of the health app. (Mikhail, 9/5)
The Wall Street Journal: The Los Angeles Rams Have A Secret Weapon: Keeping Players Healthy
In a violent sport notorious for injuries, the Rams have outpaced their competition in a crucial category: keeping their players healthy. The team has tackled one of football’s thorniest issues by not approaching it as a strict medical problem. The Rams try to solve it with data. It has paid off to the tune of a Lombardi Trophy. In a sport where injuries seem completely random, the Rams have been in the top five in avoiding missed games due to them—for five straight years. (Beaton, 9/7)
The New York Times: A ‘Period Dignity Officer’ Seemed Like A Good Idea. Until A Man Was Named
Scotland gained worldwide praise when it passed a pioneering period act, making tampons and pads free by law and instructing schools to make them available in every building. One region even instituted a “period dignity officer.” Then the role was given to a man. The appointment of Jason Grant, a former personal trainer, as the coordinator of the menstruation dignity plan in Scotland’s Tayside region, north of Edinburgh, led to bewilderment and widespread criticism. On Monday, the role was scrapped. (Bubola, 9/6)
