Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Psychotic Episodes Linked To Strong Weed In Young Users
NBC News: High Potency Weed Linked To Psychotic Episodes, Mysterious Vomiting Illness In Young Users
Doctors warn of the soaring potency of marijuana and risks it may pose for young users – from psychiatric issues to the mysterious illness called scromiting. (Stickler and Patterson, 7/11)
NBC News: RSV Is Spreading In Summer, CDC Warns, Worrying Parents And Doctors
As the coronavirus pandemic continues, doctors are now warning about another respiratory disease spreading among infants and young children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health advisory last month that respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, is unexpectedly spreading in Southern states. RSV, which usually spikes during winter, can cause severe illness in kids and older adults and kills up to 500 children under age 5 each year. (Bauer, 7/9)
The New York Times: How Black Women Can Interpret Those Scary Health Statistics
Over the last 18 months, Americans received regular reminders of their own mortality, thanks to daily reporting of Covid-19 numbers. But for Black women, the dull roar of alarming health data was relentless even before Covid-19 and only grew during the pandemic. As a Black woman myself, I found health data to be frightening, especially this past year as I became pregnant and gave birth. While the data and reporting is important for policymaking, it can be detrimental to your mental health when it becomes a stream of terrifying headlines about your community or people who look like you. (Kerubo, 7/12)
The New York Times: ‘You Just Feel Like Nothing’: California To Pay Sterilization Victims
Leonard Bisel was 15 when the state of California decided that he should not have children, threatening to lock him up and force him to do hard labor if he did not submit to sterilization. In the middle of his operation, recalled Mr. Bisel, now 88, he woke up. “It was really painful,” he said, “and the doctor told me to shut up.” Under the influence of a movement known as eugenics, whose supporters believed that those with physical disabilities, psychiatric disorders and other conditions were “genetically defective,” more than 60,000 people across the United States were forcibly sterilized by state-run programs throughout the 20th century. (Morris, 7/11)
NPR: Clean Skincare: The Label Worth Billions Of Dollars
Ivy Diec has used enough skincare products to know which ingredients irritate her skin. Good: centella asiatica and other botanical ingredients. Bad: alcohol and fragrance. When her skin reacted poorly to a new brand of witch hazel, she was confused. The product was marketed as "clean" — free of parabens, phthalates and other harmful ingredients — and witch hazel itself is a natural extract. "Clean" and plant-based products were supposed to be good for her skin. That's what the beauty industry was telling her, anyway. So why was her skin so inflamed? And what does clean really mean in the first place? (Sicurella, 7/12)
Politico: Britney Spurs Congress To Tackle Toxic Conservatorships
The Free Britney movement has a new fan base on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers with wildly different ideologies work to help a cause once dismissed as niche. The unusual groundswell began after an appeal in open court last month by 39-year-old pop star Britney Spears, who's fought to exit a legal guardianship she says has prevented her from driving with her boyfriend and forced her to stay on birth control. From Elizabeth Warren to Ted Cruz, prominent politicians are vowing to respond to Spears’ case and reviving a push for more oversight of guardianships that began a decade before her first album. (Levine, Beavers and Colliver, 7/12)
