Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Parents Sue Wisconsin School Districts After Their Children Get Covid
CNN: Wisconsin Parents File Lawsuits Against School Districts Over Their Children's Covid-19 Infections
Ongoing conflict between parents and schools over virus mitigation for children in the classroom has gone to court in Wisconsin, where two parents are suing their children's school districts over their Covid-19 infection. The parents accused the districts of failing to protect their children from becoming infected. Both lawsuits are funded by the Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC, according to its Facebook page. (Holcombe and Razek, 10/12)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin COVID-19 Hospitalizations Continued To Climb Over Weekend
Wisconsin hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have continued to climb over the past weekend. On Friday, the Wisconsin Hospital Association reported that 1,162 people were hospitalized with COVID. Three hundred and seven of them were receiving intensive care. Monday's data showed that the total number of COVID-19 patients across the state had risen to 1,179, with 317 of them in the ICU. (Kirby, 10/11)
In other news about the spread of the coronavirus —
Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi COVID-19 State Of Emergency Designation Extended Again
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday again extended the state's COVID-19 emergency declaration, as the state continues to recover from the pandemic. The extension has become routine, having been extended every month since Reeves first issued it in March 2020. The declaration is meant to make it easier for the state to seek federal assistance for costs incurred as part of its COVID-19 response. (Sanderlin, 10/11)
Charleston Gazette Mail: Justice Continues To Send Mixed Message As WV COVID-19 Death Toll Nears 4,000
West Virginia is on pace to eclipse 4,000 COVID-19 deaths as early as Tuesday, with 72% of those deaths occurring after vaccines became readily available, data from the Department of Health and Human Resources show. At Monday’s state COVID-19 briefing, Gov. Jim Justice noted that a 4,000-death milestone was inconceivable early in the pandemic, when initial projections were that COVID-19 would kill fewer than 100 West Virginians. “In West Virginia, we may very well lose 5,000 West Virginians before all this is over,” said Justice, who opened the briefing Monday spending more than 10 minutes reading the 110 deaths recorded since the last briefing, on Thursday. (Kabler, 10/11)
San Francisco Chronicle: California Still Won't Make Coronavirus Workplace Outbreaks Public
Supporters of a push to require companies to report workplace coronavirus outbreaks publicly say they plan to keep fighting despite recent setbacks that they say allow big businesses to keep outbreaks secret. In February, Assembly Member Eloise Gómez Reyes, D-San Bernardino, proposed a law requiring the California Department of Public Health to report coronavirus outbreaks by workplace location, meaning outbreaks at specific businesses would be disclosed to the public. (Montalva, 10/11)
The Baltimore Sun: She Survived COVID At Hopkins. Now Maria Young Wants More Resources For Hospitals To Treat Critical Care Patients.
As Maria Young came to, she had visions of being held captive on a cruise ship. Trapped against her will, she cried out for help. It was early February, more than three months since the health communications specialist from Rockville contracted COVID-19. She spent that time under a heavy blanket of sedation as a team of medical professionals at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore worked to save her life. Young, 42, has no memory of those months. But the physical and emotional scars she carries from the near-death experience, and its aftermath, may never heal. (Miller, 10/12)
Also —
The Wall Street Journal: New Clues Emerge About Whether Vaccines Can Help Fight Long Covid
Millions of people suffer from symptoms of long Covid, doctors estimate. Now, early research is offering some clues about whether vaccinations might help. When the vaccines first came out, some people who had suffered from debilitating symptoms for months after their initial Covid-19 infections told their doctors they felt better after getting vaccinated. The response intrigued scientists. Now, emerging research suggests that vaccines may help reduce symptoms in some people. (Reddy, 10/11)
CIDRAP: Mental Disabilities, Disorders Linked To Mortality Risk During Pandemic
People with mental disorders and intellectual disabilities had a greater mortality risk during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, according to a study published late last week in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe. The researchers looked at 167,122 people from the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust from 2019 to 2020. Across the cohort, 40.0% had at least one affective disorder, 34.7% neurotic/stress-related and somatoform disorders, 22.5% substance use disorder, and 15.8% schizophrenia-spectrum disorder. Overall, all-cause mortality from Jan 1, 2019, to Dec 31, 2020, was 4.0%, with 48.4% of those (3,227) occurring prior to Jan 30, 2020, when the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency of international concern. (10/11)
CIDRAP: COVID Infects All Ages In Family Equally, But Immunity Plays A Role
Two new studies explore the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission among household members, one finding that children and adults are at similar risk and one showing that COVID-19–naïve family members' risk was 45% to 97% lower, depending on the number of members immune through infection or full vaccination. (Van Beusekom, 10/11)
