Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Pros, Cons Of Vaccine Rollout Plans; Time To Make Science Bipartisan Again
Stat: To Roll Out Covid-19 Vaccines, Vaccinate Everyone In Several Hot Zones
Dear CEOs of Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca, Thank you for rapidly mobilizing your scientific resources and your vaccine clinical trial networks. (We also thank Operation Warp Speed and others for organizing and underwriting your efforts to tame Covid-19.) Your vaccines are on the brink of crossing the finish line of approval, but the confusion surrounding the presidential transition has brought great uncertainty to the distribution plan. (Daniel Teres and Martin Strosberg, 12/3)
Bloomberg: How Safe Are Covid-19 Vaccines From Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna And AstraZeneca?
SF: The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines may seem brand new, but they are the culmination of more than a decade of work that started during the SARS and MERS outbreaks. Vaccines were even developed against MERS but were never needed. Nevertheless, scientists learned a huge amount from working with that virus, which is from the same family as the one that causes Covid-19. Remember also that technology has evolved rapidly — for example, we’re now about able to sequence the genomes of every mutant version of the virus in less than a day. That helps in speeding up vaccine development. (12/2)
Stat: Make Science Bipartisan Again
The Biden-Harris administration faces daunting challenges. Chief among them is tackling the Covid-19 pandemic and bending the case curve. This challenge cannot be met, let alone overcome, without a national plan plus substantial new investment in public health, science, and technology. And it will require prioritizing science over politics. (Tom Daschle, Bill Frist and Max G. Bronstein, 12/3)
The Wall Street Journal: Pharma Deserves The Nobel Peace Prize For The Covid Vaccines
This is the moment to put into nomination the obvious recipient for 2021’s Nobel Peace Prize: the scientists at the pharmaceutical companies whose vaccines are about to rescue the world from the catastrophe of SARS-CoV-2. Who else was going to save us from Covid-19? The answer, we’ve learned across nine long months, is no one. (Daniel Henninger, 12/2)
The Washington Post: Lies About The Coronavirus Vaccines Are Already Spreading. How Can They Be Stopped?
The coronavirus vaccines are coming, which means the coronavirus vaccine disinformation is coming, too. In fact, it is already here. “Will New COVID Vaccine Make You Transhuman?” asks one conspiratorial article about the upcoming inoculations, feeding into a wackadoodle charge about the “reprogramming” of DNA. “This vaccine will not only ‘mark’ you like a cattle,” reads another website, “you will be injected with nano particules that will make you a Perfect antenna for the 5g frequencies.” And one similarly baseless narrative dates to the early days of the pandemic: that Bill Gates created the coronavirus itself in an effort to create mandatory vaccines. (12/3)
The Wall Street Journal: A Christmas Compromise On Covid Relief?
As the 116th Congress enters its final weeks, I have a suggestion for House and Senate leaders: Take a break from nonstop politics and focus on the needs of the country. On Tuesday a bipartisan and bicameral group of legislators proposed a $908 billion emergency Covid relief package to get the American people through a difficult winter. Leadership should take up this bill immediately. (William A. Galston,12/1)
The New York Post: Heavy-Handed COVID-19 Lockdown Rules Are An All-Around Disaster
Across the nation, businesses are defying governors, such as California’s Gavin Newsom and New York’s Andrew Cuomo, and refusing to shut down. The owners of Mac’s Public House on Staten Island, for example, declared the place an “autonomous zone.” When sheriffs arrested them Tuesday night, crowds cheered the owners. This pandemic isn’t the time to glorify civil disobedience. People need to wear masks and follow safety rules, and the sheriffs were doing their job. Even so, owners resisting lockdowns are giving voice to a powerful message that shouldn’t be lost. If government and public-health officials want to maintain public trust, they need to enforce rational rules consistently and obey the rules themselves. (Betsy McCaughey, 12/2)
Fox News: The Coronavirus Pandemic Is A Global Fraud Perpetrated By China, Abetted By The Powerful
You've heard a lot recently about "voter fraud" and "election fraud." But now comes more profound news, of a global fraud that began long before Election Day and has ruined millions of lives, killed hundreds of thousands, and deeply affected the outcome of our presidential election.We speak, of course, of the coronavirus pandemic. Simply put, we've been lied to.The latest evidence comes from samples collected during Red Cross blood drives last year and analyzed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a study published on Monday. (Tucker Carlson, 12/3)
The Washington Post: Who Knew A Pandemic Could Reduce Health-Care Spending?
I used to say that the only proven way to actually reduce health-care expenditures was to have a major financial meltdown. Now, 2020 has unexpectedly shown us another way to do it: have a pandemic. Let me expand on that a little. During the Great Health Care Wars of the early 21st century, I developed a certain personal specialty in explaining that no matter how wonderful single-payer health care might be in other respects, it wouldn’t reduce U.S. health-care spending to European levels (which can be half or less what the United States spends). (Megan McArdle, 12/3)
The Wall Street Journal: What Are The GOP’s Views On Health Care?
Republicans and Democrats in Washington are stalemated on health care. Republicans long campaigned on repealing the Affordable Care Act and won House and Senate seats on the issue in 2010 and later. Democrats flipped the script in 2018 and attacked Republicans for trying to undermine the law’s protections for pre-existing conditions. But for now at least, a President Biden will be unable to pass a “public option,” and Republicans will be unable to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The question the GOP ought to ponder is: What does it want to accomplish on health care? (Bobby Jindal, 12/2)
