Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Mass Shooting Contagion; The Future Of Hospitals & The Origins Of The Opioid Epidemic
The Atlantic: Mass Shootings In America Are Spreading Like A Disease
These are three of the five worst mass shootings in modern U.S. history. All happened in the past two years. Two occurred within the same two months. Is there a connection? (Derek Thompson, 11/6)
Politico: Agenda 2020: The Hospital Issue
As America reconsiders how to pay for health care, hospitals would seem to be the unshakable center of the system — beloved local institutions that are often seen as one-stop shops for health care services. But as the Hospital issue of Agenda 2020 has discovered, the hospital of the future is likely to be much different, reshaping itself under pressures from both payers and health reformers. For one thing, it’s likely to be more of a health network than a building —a system of clinics and other community providers designed to prevent illness more than to treat it, and to keep the ailing out of the hospital as much as possible. (11/8)
Vox's The Impact: How Well-Intentioned Doctors Helped Create The Opioid Epidemic
On this episode of The Impact, we explore a story about well-meaning doctors trying to do the best thing for their patients. These doctors developed and spread new policies that urged all other doctors to treat pain way more seriously. Those well-intentioned policies did not go as planned. They helped create the nationwide opioid epidemic we’re dealing with today. Podcast. (Sarah Kliff, Byrd Pinkerton, Jillian Weinberger, and Amy Drozdowska, 11/7)
The Atlantic: The Zombie Diseases Of Climate Change
Climate change, in other words, could awaken Earth’s forgotten pathogens. It is one of the most bizarre symptoms of global warming. And it has already begun to happen. (Robinson Meyer, 11/6)
Vice: Cracking Down On Opioids Hurts People With Chronic Pain
Before he broke his back in a 1980s accident that ultimately triggered years of chronic pain, Jay Lawrence had to make a split-second decision. He was on a bridge with a car in front of him and the brakes on his truck had failed. "He saw a baby seat in the car and he hit the bridge," says his widow, Meredith Lawrence. She lost her husband to suicide earlier this year after his doctor abruptly decided to cut down his opioid pain medication. (Maia Szalavitz, 11/6)
The New Republic: The New Coal Crisis
Weeks after Hurricane Maria’s landfall, the status of Guayama’s coal-ash pile remains unclear. How much of this waste—the leftovers from burning coal—got into the floodwater or into the air? The company that owns the pile, AES Puerto Rico, did not respond to requests for comment. But scientific researchers have long raised concerns that the coal ash, which contains high levels of arsenic, mercury, and chromium, represents a massive health hazard—one that Maria has now likely exacerbated. (Emily Atkin, 11/3)
Slate: Stock Photos Are Terrible At Depicting Illness, Mental Or Physical
Stock photos are ubiquitous—and infamous. The concepts are often laugh-out-loud absurd. The models are disproportionately white, not to mention atypically young, beautiful, and able-bodied. Outdated gender norms seem to be readily reinforced. Article after article has shown that stock photographs generally suck. But the place where the limitations of stock photography are most obvious—and deserve special scrutiny—is in depicting mental and physical illness. (Eleanor Cummins, 11/6)
