Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Multi-State Salmonella Outbreak Tied To Dried Mushrooms
AP: Mushrooms Linked To Salmonella Outbreaks In 10 States
Federal officials are warning of salmonella cases in at least 10 states linked to dried mushrooms from a Southern California company. More than 40 people have gotten sick and four have been hospitalized, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. (9/26)
How COVID has affected households —
WBUR: Nearly Two-Thirds Of U.S. Households Struck By COVID-19 Face Financial Trouble
COVID-19 has caused widespread damage to the economy — so wide that it can be easy to overlook how unevenly households are suffering. But new polling data out this month reveal households that either have had someone with COVID-19 or include someone who has a disability or special needs are much more likely to also be hurting financially. (Farmer, 9/28)
Stateline: Mothers Are 3 Times More Likely Than Fathers To Have Lost Jobs In Pandemic
Mothers of small children have lost work at three times the rate of fathers in the pandemic, a situation that threatens not only progress toward gender equity but middle-class income gains that have become increasingly dependent on working women. Mothers of children 12 years old and younger lost nearly 2.2 million jobs between February and August, a 12% drop, a Stateline analysis found. Fathers of small children saw a 4% drop of about 870,000 jobs. (Henderson, 9/28)
Bloomberg: Best And Worst Jobs America: Home Care Pay Comparison With Fast Food Industry
A job in home-based health care, America’s quickest-growing industry, felt like a step up the ladder for Shawanna Ferguson when she left her fast-food job a decade ago. But in terms of pay and security, it didn’t turn out to be much of an advance. It’s taken a public-health emergency to shine a spotlight on the precarious conditions and low pay in this key corner of America’s direct-care economy -- a key employer for Black women, in particular -- and turn it into an issue for presidential politics. Democratic candidate Joe Biden is promising a $775 billion investment in the industry, which he says will help give carers a pay raise. (Dmitrieva, 9/26)
Detroit Free Press: Coronavirus Pandemic Hits Most Vulnerable On Multiple Fronts
COVID-19 has not only exposed health disparities in the U.S., it has also brought to light economic inequalities, according to numerous economists and studies examining the pandemic's impact. On a local level, those disparities become apparent in Detroit when compared with the suburbs and the rest of Michigan. At its peak in the pandemic, the unemployment rate in Detroit nearly hit 50%, more than four times the unemployment rate in the city prior to the pandemic, according to a representative survey of Detroiters from the University of Michigan’s Detroit Metro Area Communities Study. (Roberts, 9/26)
In other public health news —
AP: First Man Cured Of HIV Infection Now Has Terminal Cancer
Timothy Ray Brown, the first person known to have been cured of HIV infection, says he is now terminally ill from a recurrence of the cancer that prompted his historic treatment 12 years ago. Brown, dubbed “the Berlin patient” because of where he lived at the time, had a transplant from a donor with a rare, natural resistance to the AIDS virus. For years, that was thought to have cured his leukemia and his HIV infection, and he still shows no signs of HIV. But in an interview with The Associated Press, Brown said his cancer returned last year and has spread widely. He’s receiving hospice care where he now lives in Palm Springs, California. (Marchione, 9/25)
Los Angeles Times: Hawaiian Airlines Will Offer COVID Tests To Passengers From L.A.
As Hawaii prepares to ease its pandemic quarantine rules on Oct. 15, Hawaiian Airlines says it will offer pre-flight COVID-19 testing to passengers flying from LAX and San Francisco International Airport. The tests, which will cost $90-$150, are intended to give passengers an easier way to show island authorities a fresh negative result. Starting Oct. 15, Hawaii will waive its 14-day quarantine requirement for passengers who can show negative results from an approved COVID test within 72 hours of departure. (Reynolds, 9/25)
Arizona Republic: Unmask Arizona Rally Against Mask Mandates, COVID-19 Orders Draws 50
Around 50 people gathered in front of the Arizona Capitol building Friday to protest Gov. Doug Ducey's executive order on COVID-19 and to call for an end to mask mandates. Dawn Garcia, one of the organizers of the event, said she and her friend decided to plan the event after joining a Facebook group called Great 48, which has organized similar events earlier this year. She said she saw how people were feeling suppressed and wanted to reach out to do something that could make a change. (Jones, 9/25)
Boston Globe Spotlight Team: Last Words: A Globe Spotlight Report. Is Death The Great Equalizer?
Here, in a progressive state that boasts some of the world’s greatest hospitals, poor people live shorter lives, much shorter, than those with money. Black and Latino patients get less hospice care, die with more pain, and suffer more early deaths than do white and Asian people. People who are Black, Latino, or poor die more often inside sterile hospitals, while the wealthier have long had better access to residential-like alternatives. (9/27)
The New York Times: We’ll Have To Learn To Live With Smoke. Here’s Why.
For a full week this month, my family did not leave our house here in this famously outdoorsy city. At times, smoke from the state’s huge wildfires made it hard to see to the end of the block. Sometimes, we could barely see across the street. The smoke was extreme, yes. But it was also a glimpse of the future. “We’re not going to get off of this wildfire train anytime soon,” said Jennifer Balch, a fire scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. “The big question is, how do we want our smoke?” (Rosen, 9/23)
Chicago Tribune: Here's How Getting The Flu Shot Is Different This Year
Getting the flu shot this year is going to look different in Illinois as patients and medical facilities adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some Chicago-area doctors and pharmacies are offering drive-thru flu shots for kids and adults to help with social distancing. And some companies that normally offer vaccines in the office are giving vouchers to employees working from home that they can redeem at pharmacies. (Schencker, 9/25)
Kaiser Health News: Health On Wheels: Tricked-Out RVs Deliver Addiction Treatment To Rural Communities
Tonja Jimenez is far from the only person driving an RV down Colorado’s rural highways. But unlike the other rigs, her 34-foot-long motor home is equipped as an addiction treatment clinic on wheels, bringing lifesaving treatment to the northeastern corner of the state, where patients with substance use disorders are often left to fend for themselves. As in many states, access to addiction treatment remains a challenge in Colorado, so a new state program has transformed six RVs into mobile clinics to reach isolated farming communities and remote mountain hamlets. And, in recent months, they’ve become more crucial: During the coronavirus pandemic, even as brick-and-mortar addiction clinics have closed or stopped taking new patients, these six-wheeled clinics have kept going, except for a pit stop this summer for air conditioning repair. (Hawryluk, 9/28)
