Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Refusing to Open Public Schools; Vaccinating Teachers; Compromising On Health Care
The Wall Street Journal: Chicago Teachers Union Vs. Biden
Chicago’s Board of Education had required K-8 teachers to show up at schools on Monday to prepare for a return to in-person instruction on Feb. 1. The union doesn’t care. Seventy-one percent of CTU voting members rejected a return to in-person learning until schools are “safe”—meaning whenever teachers feel like going back. The district has installed air purifiers in classrooms, conducted ventilation tests, increased cleaning and procured rapid testing, among other things. It will begin vaccinating teachers next month. There’s no excuse for teachers not to return to classrooms. (1/25)
Los Angeles Times: For Vaccine Priority, Teachers Should Agree To Return To Class
The number of coronavirus cases is inching down, a positive if tenuous sign. So are hospitalization rates, including at intensive care units. As sloppy as the vaccination rollout has been, thousands of doses are administered every day. And teachers have been given high priority in California for those inoculations, although in Los Angeles and many other counties they’re still waiting their turn. Strange to say, however, even vaccination isn’t enough to make some teachers unions ready to return to physical classrooms. Educators in the Los Angeles teachers union say they want to see coronavirus infection rates drop significantly in communities served by L.A. Unified before they return. (1/26)
The Washington Post: Fairfax County Should Open Schools Or Stop Vaccinating Teachers
The Fairfax County school system demanded and then received high-priority placement for teachers and administrators to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Those vaccines began a week ago, and, according to the Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Brabrand, 5,000 teachers have received their first dose and an additional 22,000 teachers are registered to receive their first dose soon. And yet, having jumped to the front of the vaccine line, Brabrand, the FCPS School Board and the teachers union are delaying opening schools. That raises the question of why they have the priority placement to begin with, and whether these vaccinations should be immediately halted so that high-risk individuals or public servants who have been working outside of their homes for the entirety of the year have access. (Rory Cooper, 1/25)
New York Post: America’s Urban Schools Are Massively Damaging Children By Refusing To Reopen
Kids in the nation’s big cities have been banned from public-school buildings for nearly a year now — and for many of them, that won’t change any time soon, thanks to two-faced, spineless pols and selfish but powerful teachers’ unions. In major cities across America, students have been relegated to educationally inferior (and sometimes near-worthless) online “instruction” since March. In New York City, elementary public schools have opened part-time, but middle and high schools have been closed since November with no word on when they’ll return. (Karol Markowicz, 1/25)
Stat: Be More Open-Minded To Newcomers Moving Into Health Tech
Silicon Valley types like to talk about disrupting things. But health care doesn’t want to be disrupted. I get it. Who wants to see their medical care taken over by a bunch of techies willing to cut corners in their insatiable quest for growth? (Christina Farr, 1/26)
The New York Times: We Can Improve Health Care. It Just Takes Compromise.
President Biden says he will draw on his decades-long experience in the Senate to bridge partisan divides in Washington. Health care may stress-test his deal-making prowess. Mr. Biden is right: There is an opportunity for bipartisan cooperation on expanding coverage and controlling costs — but only if the parties set aside ideological ambitions to make our health care system work better. (Lanhee J. Chen and James C. Capretta, 1/26)
The Hill: How The Coronavirus Has Totally Transformed Society In America
There must have been a corporate Zoom meeting sometime at the end of March 2020. For several months all commercial messages had a version of “in these unprecedented times” stamped on top of the product or service for sale. Americans hadn’t seen the effects of a mass pandemic in a century, and many of COVID-19’s results have headlined major news programs for a year now. But the true, lasting effects of the coronavirus will stay with us for generations, even beyond the grisly death toll or economic effects. (Kristin Tate, 1/24)
Stat: FDA Should Make Friends With Independent Researchers
Support for open science — accessible, collaborative, and radically transparent research done outside of traditional science venues — has been growing. During the Covid-19 pandemic, you might even say it is having a moment. (Christi Guerrini, Alex Pearlman and Patti Zettler, 1/26)
