Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Unseen Impact Of Covid On Asian Americans; FDA Needs To Accelerate EUA For Kids Vaccine
The Baltimore Sun: Asian Americans Are Invisible Victims Of COVID
COVID-19 has claimed more than 600,000 lives in the U.S. yet hidden in that number is how deadly the pandemic has been for Asian Americans. Emerging evidence shows that the COVID-19 mortality rate for Asian Americans is the highest among all races and ethnicities for some subpopulations. Yet sadly, this loss remains largely invisible. (Lanlan Xu, 8/ 20)
Los Angeles Times: FDA Must Fast-Track COVID-19 Vaccine For Kids Under 12
If the Food and Drug Administration continues on its current path, a COVID-19 vaccine for children under 12 probably won’t be available until early 2022 — an eternity in this pandemic. Kids infected by the highly contagious Delta variant have overwhelmed children’s hospitals in parts of Florida and Texas. A record number of children — more than 1,900 — are hospitalized in the U.S. Unless younger children are vaccinated, more school outbreaks will occur, leading to repeating cycles of closures, quarantines and reopenings. Those who have lost one year of school may lose another, with children from low-income families and students of color continuing to suffer the greatest educational losses. (Bernard Black and Martin Skladany, 8/23)
Stat: Covid-19 Booster Shot Delivery Must Avoid Vaccine Roll-Out Mistakes
With news that Covid-19 booster shots are in Americans’ imminent future, the chaos and uncertainty of the initial vaccine rollout are making a reprise. Whether boosters for everyone in the U.S. are necessary, justified, or ethical are important questions, but are different from the issue at hand. President Biden’s decision — that everyone be equally eligible for a booster eight months after the initial shot — risks reproducing many of the flaws that plagued the first roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccines, such as failing to establish clear priorities and methods of distribution. (Jennifer S. Bard and Chloe Reichel, 8/20)
Chicago Tribune: COVID-19 Booster Puts Health Care Workers In A Vexing Ethical Dilemma
The Biden administration recently announced plans to approve booster shots to be administered eight months after the second Moderna or Pfizer vaccine shot. Health care workers who received their vaccinations in late 2020 and early 2021 may receive boosters as early as September. As a physician, I signed up for the Pfizer vaccines as soon as they became available at my hospital. Throughout the pandemic, I kept up with the development of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and pored over the supporting research and list of side effects. I decided that my likelihood of contracting COVID-19 was much higher than suffering from a significant adverse effect from the vaccine. I took my second shot as scheduled in January. I worked through a throbbing headache the next day with Tylenol so that I could continue to admit patients to the hospital. (Yoo Jung Kim, 8/20)
USA Today: To COVID-19, There Are No Red States, No Blue States, Just The United States
If you were repulsed by the idea that Gov. Ron DeSantis “won" the pandemic, you might get perverse pleasure from watching his state of Florida continually set records for COVID-19 hospitalizations. Critics of Gov. Greg Abbott could get smug watching him catch the coronavirus as he wages war against any effort to mandate measures to contain pandemic across Texas. And who can do anything but shake a head as the 20,000 students forced to quarantine in Mississippi can’t persuade Gov. Tate Reeves to implement a statewide mask requirement? (Jason Sattler, 8/23)
Stat: 4 Measures Applied Together Can Limit Covid-19 Transmission In Schools
I live with someone who hasn’t been vaccinated against Covid-19. He’s my first-grader. Like all of his classmates and anyone under 12 years old, Davi can’t yet get one of the authorized vaccines. But as schools return to full-time in-person learning, they are doing so in the face of a rapidly rising fourth wave of the pandemic that is affecting mainly unvaccinated people. And because the prevailing Delta variant is so highly infectious, more young children are being diagnosed with Covid-19 than in the previous waves. Many parents and school administrators are faced with a dilemma of growing urgency: How do we ensure that kids are safe at school while still reaping the benefits of in-person learning? (Alicia Zhou, 8/23)
The Boston Globe: In Weighing Vaccine Mandates, Follow The Evidence, Not The Science
In my career leading science centers in California, Alabama, and Massachusetts, I have generally found science to be common ground, something that brings people together in shared wonder and inspiration. I still believe this is the case, but heated disagreements about COVID-19 vaccines have ruptured this shared ground like an earthquake. In this polarized environment, how should leaders think through the decision on whether to mandate vaccinations? In recently announcing that the Museum of Science in Boston will mandate vaccinations for all staff and volunteers, I personally wrestled with this question. This is the common price of institutional leadership, and, in this case, the result of tension between the principles of science and public health. (Tim Ritchie, 8/23)
The Washington Post: Unvaccinated Covid Patients Are Straining Hospitals Like Mine, Where I Had To Turn A Cancer Patient Away
The unvaccinated are killing people in ways they probably never imagined. As the delta variant spreads, hospitals in Florida, Alabama and other states have been filling with covid patients, almost all of them people who chose not to get vaccinated. As daily infections break records, intensive-care unit beds are scarce or nonexistent. But the surge has also affected non-covid patients, such as the Texas shooting victim who had to wait more than a week for surgery. Louisiana stroke victims who can’t get admitted to hospitals. And the cancer patient I recently had to turn away. (Nitesh N. Paryani, 8/21)
