Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Pros, Cons Of U.S. Response To Testing, Opening Schools, Rushing A Vaccine
The Washington Post: We’ve Reached 200,000 Deaths. Our Response Has Gotten Even Worse Than It Was At 100,000.
The United States has reached the grim milestone of 200,000 deaths from covid-19. We are in a much worse place than we were when we crossed the 100,000-death threshold in May. Why? Start with the numbers. In late May, we had about 20,000 new infections per day. Now we are at double that, with around 40,000 new daily infections. This is a high baseline to have entering the fall and winter, when the combination of quarantine fatigue and cold weather could drive people to congregate indoors and substantially increase transmission. (Leana S. Wen, 9/23)
The Guardian: The 200,000 Coronavirus Deaths Are An American Tragedy Of Our Own Making
Death is not supposed to be part of the American dream. As the country’s founding document says, liberty and the pursuit of happiness presuppose life. For a culture based on these ideals, death can be hard to confront. Nevertheless, as the official death toll from Covid-19 in the United States passes 200,000, it is time to take stock of how long-running pathologies in American culture exact a price measured in human lives. Trump's 'America first' is working: the US leads the world in coronavirus cases. The United States has now suffered about 22% of the world’s deaths from Covid-19, despite accounting for only 4% of the world’s population. (Andrew Gawthorpe, 9/22)
The Washington Post: Seven Months Into The Pandemic, Trump’s Testing Plan Enters Its Second Wave Of Failure
It has been seven months since the pandemic struck, and still the Trump national testing plan is testing little more than our patience. If we had a properly functioning federal government, we would have enough screening tests by now to send kids back to school in most places and to protect essential workers, residents of nursing homes, university students and workers in food processing plants and other high-risk settings. But instead of the nearly 200 million monthly tests we would need to do such things, we have under 30 million — about the same that we had in July. (Dana Milbank, 9/23)
The Wall Street Journal: No Need To Sweat Covid Vaccination Rates
President Trump has said he hopes the federal government can begin distributing a Covid-19 vaccine in October. Many in the public-health community are skeptical, arguing instead for a more controlled, and likely slower, release. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine have recommended heavy-handed government rationing during the initial rollout. Science magazine reports that only half the U.S. population may eventually want the vaccine, a level too low to achieve herd immunity. Some in the media and the public-health community are arguing that all this necessitates continued restrictions on economic activity. But the pessimism over a vaccine rollout and worries over widespread vaccination are misguided. (Tomas J. Philipson, 9/23)
The New York Times: Political Incompetence Can Be As Deadly As Covid-19
MADRID — Politicians here seem to be mystified as to why Spain is, once again, the European country hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. They have blamed the recklessness of youth, our Latin inability to keep our distance, and even immigration. And yet all this time the answer has been right under their noses: Nothing has eased the spread of the virus as much as their own incompetence. (David Jiménez, 9/24)
The Wall Street Journal: Good Vaccine Progress, Bad Politics
Johnson & Johnson announced Wednesday that its vaccine candidate for Covid-19 will enter Phase 3 trials, the fourth to do so. The speed of vaccine development is remarkable, and credit goes to scientific advances and some smart government decisions. The shame is that this good news has been swamped by the politicization of vaccines, like everything else about Covid-19. Democrats say the Trump Administration is compromising safety by rushing out a vaccine before the election, while Mr. Trump is playing into their hands by overpromising and trolling regulators. “Big news. Numerous great companies are seeing fantastic results. @FDA must move quickly!” he tweeted Wednesday. (9/23)
ABC News: Let’s Not Lose Our 3rd Chance To Contain COVID-19
The fight against COVID-19 is far from over, but we are starting to see signs of significant progress. Across the country, we are seeing 11 new cases per 100,000 people, down from our peak of 20 per 100,000 in August. While this is a sign of improvement, we need to remember that we've been in this position -- twice before. (Dr. Bechara Choucair and Dr. Jay Bhatt, 9/24)
The Hill: America's Public Schools Are Not Ready For The COVID-19 Vaccination Debate
The long-simmering national debate over childhood vaccination is barreling towards America's public schools, and they aren’t ready. With 56 million students, nearly 4 million teachers and millions of other critical school staff, the nation’s education system has a greater share of the vaccine-eligible population than any other public institution, and it’s going to be ground zero for the nation’s COVID-19 inoculation campaign. (Mario Ramirez and Andrew Buher, 9/23)
Bloomberg: Second Pandemic Wave: What Is Italy Doing Better Than Spain, France, U.K.?
Italy was a symbol of the first wave of the pandemic. It was the first country in the world to go into a national lockdown, as its hospitals — especially in cities such as Bergamo and Cremona in the north — struggled to cope with the spike of cases and there was a sharp increase in deaths. As fear of a second wave grips Europe, Italy appears to be coping much better than other countries such as France, Spain and the U.K. This is hardly a time for complacency; as Britain can attest, this virus can return with a vengeance. (Ferdinando Giugliano, 9/24)
Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky Hospitals Demand Help With Next COVID-19 Relief Bill
In late August, while the number of people in Kentucky who have died from COVID-19 approached 1,000 and the number of people here confirmed with the virus neared 50,000, our federal legislators came home from Washington, leaving an unresolved national funding bill for COVID-19 relief efforts behind.Earlier COVID-19 response legislation enacted by Congress provided critical resources for our health care facilities and communities. But now, as the numbers of cases and deaths continue to grow here and across the nation, our members of Congress can see the challenges that continue here in the hospital and a clinic serving vulnerable communities, where I work. (Nicole Leedy, 9/24)
