Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Public Health Officials Grapple With Huge Block Of Voters Who Snubbed Science
Stat: ‘Science Was On The Ballot’: How Can Public Health Recover From A Rebuke At The Polls?
Results from Tuesday and early Wednesday underscore just how many Americans agree with a president who has called the nation’s top scientists “idiots,” openly mocked mask-wearing, and has insisted states must be “liberated” from lockdowns. No matter who wins the presidency, more than 67 million Americans already seem to have sided with Trump on public health. In preliminary exit polls, just 14% of Republican voters surveyed said the coronavirus pandemic was the deciding factor in who they voted for, despite the fact that the virus has killed more than 233,000 Americans and is spreading unabated across the nation. (Florko, 11/4)
The Guardian: Fears About Economy Under Covid Lockdown Helped Trump Outperform Polls
Voters’ fears about the economic impact of coronavirus lockdowns appear to have helped Donald Trump outperform pollsters’ expectations and brought the US election down to a nail-biting finish. While ballots are still being counted, that performance probably shows the continued resonance of anti-lockdown rhetoric in an election where, especially for Trump voters, economic health came first. (Glenza, 11/4)
PBS NewsHour: Amid COVID-19 Pandemic, Wisconsin Voters Choose Biden Over Trump
Wisconsin voters who said they had lost a family member or friend to the coronavirus pandemic were twice as likely to support former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Sixty-eight percent said they backed Biden compared to 32 percent who were for Trump, according to preliminary data from the Associated Press’ VoteCast survey Wednesday. Nationwide, 62 percent of Americans who had lost a loved one to the pandemic said they voted for Biden, according to VoteCast data. In recent months, Wisconsin has become a national hotspot for the virus. More than 250,000 Wisconsinites have gotten sick with COVID-19, and another 2,100 have died after becoming infected with the virus, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project.(Santhanam, 11/4)
The New York Times: In Midwest Battlegrounds, The Virus Met Another Concern: The Economy
When Americans voted in this presidential election, they made it clear that of all the crucial issues facing the country, the coronavirus pandemic towered over the rest. They remained diametrically opposed, however, on how the pandemic reflected on President Trump. In the Midwest — states that were battlegrounds in the presidential race and where the virus has soared — supporters of Mr. Trump defended his handling of the crisis, praised his efforts to revive the economy and echoed his suggestions that the virus’s dangers were overblown. (Bosman, Mervosh and McDonnell Nieto del Rio, 11/4)
In related news —
KHN: Longtime Health Advocate Donna Shalala Loses House Reelection Race
Rep. Donna E. Shalala of Florida, the first-term Democratic member of Congress and former Health and Human Services secretary in the Clinton administration, lost her campaign for reelection Tuesday. Shalala’s loss to Maria Elvira Salazar — a Republican and former television journalist who compared Democratic policy proposals to leftist oppression in countries like Cuba while campaigning in the Miami district — was a notable upset for House Democrats. While Democrats held onto control of the House, so far they have fallen short of expectations that they would secure an even stronger majority there. (Huetteman, 11/5)
