Perspectives: Health Insurance Test Denial Kills; Wastewater Surveillance One Future Of Public Health
Editorial writers examine these public health issues.
USA Today:
Health Insurer Delayed Patient's MRI As Cancer That Killed Her Spread
“If you had come to us a month sooner, we would have treated you with just chemotherapy. We’ll still use chemo, but first we have to amputate your leg, your hip and your pelvis. ”Kathleen Valentini, 47, and her husband, Val, listened to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center doctor’s message in disbelief. She hadn’t delayed seeking treatment by even a day. When the pain in her leg had first appeared six months earlier, she immediately went to her doctor. “She was always the responsible one,” Val said. (Steven Cohen, 6/8)
Stat:
Wastewater Monitoring: How To Strengthen An Important Public Health Tool
Wastewater monitoring has gained visibility and credibility as an effective pandemic management tool. Yet despite its promise, its use around the country remains fragmented, and its future unclear, based on the results from a national survey conducted by the Rockefeller Foundation’s Pandemic Prevention Institute and Mathematica. Today, a year and a half after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the National Wastewater Surveillance System, the program has supported wastewater monitoring in 560 counties across 44 states plus Washington, D.C. The hundreds of wastewater treatment plants monitored across these counties cover almost 20% of the U.S. population. With expansion to additional sites underway, NWSS provides technical assistance in sample collection and SARS-CoV-2 viral quantification, and access to a data analytics platform. (Aparna Keshaviah and Megan Diamond, 6/9)
Los Angeles Times:
Teenagers Shouldn't Be Able To Buy Assault Weapons
A gunman entered a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y., last month and fatally shot 10 people. Just 10 days later, a gunman entered an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and killed 19 students and two teachers. These horrific tragedies have two things in common: teenage suspects were able to legally purchase AR-15-style assault weapons, and the shooters used such guns to kill as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. (Dianne Feinstein, 6/6)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Can London Breed Solve San Francisco's Transgender Homeless Problem?
San Francisco loves an ambitious goal. In 2003, the city set the objective to produce zero waste by 2020. In 2014, it vowed to reach zero traffic-related fatalities by 2024. And in 2015, it pledged to get to zero HIV infections and preventable deaths by 2020. None of those things happened. (Nuala Bishari, 6/4)
