Parsing Policies: Lessons On Doctor Shortages; Lockdown Losses; EPA’s Stand Against Science

The Wall Street Journal: Congress’s Doctor Shortage
Hospitals in much of America are triaging Covid-19 patients because they are short of staff, especially doctors trained in emergency-care and anesthesiology. Blame Congress, which rationed the supply of new physicians two decades ago and is only now addressing its mistake, albeit not nearly enough. The $900 billion relief bill adds 1,000 new Medicare-funded graduate medical education (GME) positions over five years. A Congressional bill summary boasts about the doctor-training expansion, though it requires a microscope to find amid the spending fat. (1/4)

Stat: Proposed New Rules For A J-1 Visa Will Hinder U.S. Fight Against Covid-19
As Covid-19 infections once again surge across the United States, one of the biggest obstacles to saving lives is a shortage of doctors. A federal proposal to change the rules for foreign-born physicians working here will make the problem worse. For decades, foreign national physicians have come to the U.S. to complete their medical training in teaching hospitals. They enter the country with J-1 visas, which authorize them to remain in the U.S. for the full duration of their training programs, which can range from one to seven years. This program is good for the physicians, who are able to train in high-caliber teaching hospitals. It also benefits the millions of Americans who live in rural areas that face a shortage of physicians. (Kenneth L. Davis, 1/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Lockdowns Starve Mom And Pop
The latest lockdowns across the country will be deadly for the small businesses that have endured the pandemic this far. While there are no official numbers yet, business data show significant losses. Yelp’s Local Economic Impact Report found that, from March 1 through Aug. 31, nearly 100,000 businesses listed on Yelp had closed permanently due to the pandemic, an average of more than 500 a day. In addition to destroying the accomplishments of thousands of American entrepreneurs and the jobs they create, lockdowns are forcing retail to consolidate around large national brands, which are better positioned to survive the pandemic. (Andy Puzder, 1/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Why We’re Ending The EPA’s Reliance On Secret Science
The task of science is one of test and retest, analysis and comparison, over and over. It is slow and careful work, done in the open. Only rarely has science benefited from secrecy, and that is usually for reasons of national security. The geniuses of the Manhattan Project who built the atomic bomb, the mavericks of Cape Canaveral who sent men to the moon, these giants did their work behind high walls, and for good reason. But the work of the Environmental Protection Agency—to protect human health and the environment—shouldn’t be exempt from public scrutiny. This is why we are promulgating a rule to make the agency’s scientific processes more transparent. (EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler, 1/4)

The Washington Post: EPA Finalizes Scientific Transparency Rule Limiting Which Studies Can Be Used To Protect Public Health
In an opinion piece posted Monday night in the Wall Street Journal, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the rule “will prioritize transparency and increase opportunities for the public to access the ‘dose-response’ data that underlie significant regulations and influential scientific information.” ...Many of the nation’s leading researchers and academic organizations, however, argue that the criteria will actually restrict the EPA from using some of the most consequential research on human subjects because it often includes confidential medical records and other proprietary data that cannot be released due to privacy concerns. (Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis, 1/4)

Los Angeles Times: Should COVID Relief Checks Only Go To The Truly Needy?
During last week’s congressional wrangling over COVID relief payments, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) held that $2,000 checks were not going to happen because it would be “socialism for rich people” to give so much money to Americans who didn’t need it. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) jabbed back at Republicans via Twitter: “Funny. They had no problem giving a $1.4 billion tax break to Charles Koch and his family worth $113 billion.” McConnell’s handwringing represents a longstanding debate in American social policy that COVID relief highlights: Should public benefits be given universally, to all citizens, or be targeted to the truly needy? (Lisa Schweitzer, 1/5)