Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
New Yorkers With Chronic Illness After 9/11 Attacks Now Hard-Hit By COVID
The Wall Street Journal: Ground Zero Workers With Chronic Conditions Get Hit Hard By Covid-19
Roughly 400,000 New Yorkers—first responders, residents, workers, students and others—were exposed to caustic dust and toxic pollutants in the 9/11 dust-and-debris cloud, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New Yorkers who survived the attacks and the aftermath suffer from dozens of medical conditions, ranging from asthma to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancers. These are all dangerous underlying conditions that can make a case of Covid-19 far more serious, according to doctors at the World Trade Center Health Program at Mount Sinai, part of a federal program to track responders’ health. (Grayce West, 9/7)
The New York Times: For Long-Haulers, Covid-19 Takes A Toll On Mind As Well As Body
Forty hours after treating her first coronavirus patient, on March 30, Angela Aston came home to her family with a cough. “Gosh, your throat is scratchy,” her husband told her. Right away she knew she had likely been infected with Covid-19. As a nurse practitioner, Ms. Aston, 50, was confident she knew how to handle her symptoms, and disappeared to her bedroom to quarantine and rest. By day 50 of her illness, that confidence had disappeared. In late May, she was still experiencing daily fevers and fatigue. She went to bed each evening worried that her breathing would deteriorate overnight. Particularly frustrating was the difficulty she felt explaining to her colleagues, friends and family that after eight weeks she was still sick. (Goldberg, 9/7)
Boston Globe: Black Americans, Suffering Disproportionately From COVID-19, Face A Mounting Mental Health Crisis
The psychological toll inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic is finally becoming clear, as new evidence shows symptoms of depression and anxiety have surged since the outbreak disrupted American life this spring. But Black Americans, who have disproportionately suffered from COVID-19 and its economic fallout, are also shouldering an ever heavier mental health burden as a racial justice movement has ripped open centuries-old wounds of systemic oppression. (Pan, 9/7)
The Atlantic: What Young, Healthy People Have To Fear From COVID-19
Many young people navigating this pandemic are asking themselves a two-part health question: What are the odds that I get infected? And if I do get infected, is that really a big deal? ... The most universal answer must begin with the observation that death is not a synonym for risk. (Thompson, 9/7)
The Guardian: Act Now Or Coronavirus Will Sentence More Prisoners To Death, Say Experts
Jails and prisons continue to be among the largest clusters of Covid-19 in the United States, and experts believe disease will continue to spread inside them and out into the surrounding community without more concerted containment efforts – chief among them, releasing people from confinement. (Glenza, 9/8)
The Wall Street Journal: Readers Share Worry, Hope For Isolated Elderly In Covid Pandemic
Isolation in the pandemic is hitting elderly people especially hard, wrote Betsy Morris in a recent Wall Street Journal article. Many nursing homes and retirement communities instituted restrictions on visits and socializing in an effort to protect their vulnerable residents from the coronavirus, but loneliness and perceived isolation have also been linked to poor health outcomes. Many readers wrote in to share their own experiences with these challenges. (Sanchez, 9/7)
Kaiser Health News: Behind The Byline: ‘At Least I Got The Shot’
Photojournalist Heidi de Marco’s stunning images transport viewers to two California hospitals near the U.S.-Mexico border where the influx of patients with COVID-19 overwhelmed local intensive care units in late May. To capture these scenes at El Centro Regional Medical Center in Imperial County and Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista in San Diego County, de Marco donned personal protective equipment and followed each facility’s safety guidelines. Still, she acknowledges, the work increased her risk of exposure to the coronavirus. She also risked bringing the virus home to her family. For her it was worth the risk, in order to give readers a window on health care in the midst of a pandemic — and to share her work with the world. (de Marco, 9/8)
