Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: When A Doctor's Wife Is Ill; Vaccinating Calif.; Does Food Processing Matter?
The Washington Post: His Wife Is Ill. He’s A Doctor. Isn’t He Supposed To Know What To Do?
Two weeks after my wife has a hysterectomy, she begins experiencing fevers that rise and spike each evening: 99.2, then 100.7, then 101.5. I am an infectious-disease doctor and a consultant for Medicare. And I am puzzled and a bit frightened. “What do we do?” asks my wife — also a physician. She is lying on the sofa, covered with a blanket, color drained from her face, a drop of sweat rolling down her neck. It is Friday night. “Do we call the surgeon, go to the emergency room or wait until Monday?” Shouldn’t I know what to do? (Manoj Jain, 6/29)
Vox: California Gov. Jerry Brown Just Approved One Of The Toughest Mandatory Vaccine Laws In The Country
The story of SB277 started last February: Following the Disneyland measles outbreak, California lawmakers introduced legislation that would require children to receive mandatory vaccines before starting school. Under the law, the only people who can opt out are those who have a medical reason, such as an allergy or a disease that would make them unfit for the shots. And unvaccinated kids can only be homeschooled. In April, the bill passed the state Senate health committee by a 6-2 vote. "I've personally witnessed the suffering caused by vaccine-preventable diseases, and all children deserve to be safe at school," Democratic Sen. Richard Pan, the bill's co-author and a pediatrician, said in a statement. (Julia Belluz, 6/30)
The Atlantic: Don’t Worry So Much About Whether Your Food Is ‘Processed’
“To say all processed food is bad is a mistake,” said Dariush Mozaffarian, the dean of Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, at a session before the Aspen Ideas Festival. “I think it’s interesting, even the question ‘fresh versus processed’… as though they were opposites,” he said. “You can have something that’s fresh and processed and something that’s fresh and not processed.” (Julie Beck, 6/28)
The Atlantic: Colonial Americans Drank Roughly Three Times As Much As Americans Do Now
Go ahead, have a small beer; it will bring “Serenity of Mind, Reputation, Long Life, & Happiness.” Even a strong beer would be fine, for that brings “Cheerfulness, Strength, and Nourishment,” as long as it’s only sipped at meals. So declared Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the early republic’s most prominent physician. In his loquaciously named pamphlet, An Inquiry Into the Effects of Ardent Spirits on the Human Mind and Body, first published in 1784, Rush describes the “usual” downward spiral of drink. (Emma Green, 6/29)
Des Moines Register: Grieving Father: Stop Jailing People For Mental Illness
No one believes Jeff Cornick was thinking straight when he drunkenly carried up to a dozen gas cans into his Des Moines house, stalked around rooms with a lit candle and ranted to police that he was going to blow himself up. "Shoot me!" he yelled to an officer, a police report shows. The question is: Did this bizarre behavior make him a serious criminal? Or just a person who needed serious psychiatric treatment? (Tony Leys, 6/27)
