Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'Shock To The Body': Mental Health Damage Left In Ian's Wake In Florida
Fox News: Hurricane Ian Causing ‘Emotional Trauma’ On Top Of Physical Devastation, Says Doctor
While hurricanes are known for causing swift and often devastating physical destruction, they can also cause equally serious emotional damage, said Dr. Janette Nesheiwat on Saturday, Oct. 1. "It's a traumatizing experience," said Nesheiwat, a board-certified family and emergency medical professional and a Fox News medical contributor, during a "Fox & Friends Weekend" segment. (Rousselle, 10/1)
NBC News: Florida Hospital Without Running Water Faces Crisis After Hurricane Ian
Staff members at the Health Park Medical Center in Fort Myers told NBC News that the facility's running water went out Wednesday and hasn't yet been restored. If water service isn't back soon, the workers said, they fear disease outbreaks and infections in the wake of the storm. (Hampton, Rosenblatt, Bendix and Siemaszko, 10/1)
In other health news from across the U.S. —
Los Angeles Times: Newsom Signs Bill Protecting Transgender Youths Fleeing Red-State Laws
Again heralding California as a refuge from discriminatory policies in conservative states, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law on Thursday that aims to protect transgender youths and their families from bans against gender-affirming care. Senate Bill 107 by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) provides for a range of safeguards meant to block out-of-state attempts to penalize families that come to California seeking medical treatment for transgender children and teens or move to the state to avoid consequences for already seeking that treatment elsewhere. (Mays, 9/29)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Paramedics Without The Ambulance: Missouri Tries To Reach Patients At Home, Avoid Hospital Visits
In an effort to smooth out barriers to health care and keep people from getting sick enough to need 911 in the first place, more and more agencies are creating a new class of paramedic, one that regularly visits people’s homes. The house calls bring routine care to patients, connect them with services and prevent emergencies before they hit. (Merrilees, 9/30)
Bloomberg: Urban Heat Officers Fight Rising Temps And Slow Bureaucracy
The first-ever gathering of chief heat officers from cities around the globe brought civic leaders from countries as diverse as Chile, Greece and Sierra Leone to Washington, D.C., recently. The all-female group of urban policymakers shared the challenging role of adapting to the harsh realities of climate change today. (Sisson, 10/3)
Politico: ‘4-Alarm Blaze’: New York’s Public Health Crises Converge
This past winter, as Covid cases were beginning to decline, state health officials in New York were expecting a respite after two exhausting years and a chance to refocus on run-of-the-mill public health duties. Almost a year later, they are still waiting. (Banco, 10/2)
Kansas City Star: Social Security Disability Exam Group Accused Of Fraud
Michael Begnaud of Liberty felt confident that the medical exam he needed to help prove he was disabled would go his way. His swollen hands, inflamed with gout, so pained him he wore braces on his wrists. The decay of his retinas from incurable retinitis pigmentosa was slowly robbing him of sight. (Adler, 10/2)
Harvest Public Media: SNAP-Ed Pays Workers So Little That Some Qualify For Food Benefits Themselves
Del Jacobs likes almost everything about her job. As a SNAP-Ed community worker in Illinois, she likes getting to know the regulars at local food pantries and teaching them about healthy eating on a budget. She likes working with children, especially since she doesn’t have any kids of her own. (Cronin, 10/3)
