Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Sinclair Broadcasting Postpones Show Interview Blaming Fauci For Pandemic
The Wall Street Journal: Sinclair Postpones Controversial Show About Coronavirus
Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., the owner of 191 television stations across the U.S., delayed the airing of an interview about the alleged origins of the coronavirus pandemic that drew widespread criticism on social media. An episode of “America This Week,” which was slated to air over the weekend, features an interview with medical researcher Judy Mikovits, who has claimed that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, helped manufacture the coronavirus and spread it to China. Dr. Mikovits’s claims have previously attracted attention in the documentary “Plandemic,” which was earlier pulled from major online platforms including Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube. (Rizzo, 7/26)
USA Today: Diabetes And COVID: Coronavirus Highlights America's Health Problems
Dr. Anne Peters splits her mostly virtual work-week between a diabetes clinic on the west side of Los Angeles and one on the east side of the sprawling city. Three days a week she treats people whose diabetes is well controlled. They have insurance, so they can afford the newest medications and blood monitoring devices. They can exercise and eat well. Those generally more affluent West LA patients who've gotten COVID-19 have developed mild to moderate symptoms – feeling miserable, she said – but treatable, with close follow-up at home. ... On the other two days of her work week, it's a different story. (Weintraub, 7/27)
San Francisco Chronicle: They Defied Health Rules For A Storybook San Francisco Wedding. The Virus Didn’t Spare Them
San Francisco’s city attorney had warned Catholic leaders to stop holding illegal indoor events only days earlier. Yet the leadership of SS Peter and Paul’s helped organize the wedding ceremony, the city said. The celebration included a rehearsal dinner and reception with invitations extended to large groups from multiple households, at a time when such gatherings remain heavily restricted in much of the Bay Area. In the days following, the newlywed couple and at least eight attendees tested positive for the coronavirus, two guests told The Chronicle. The potentially exposed guests flew back to Nashville, Arizona and San Diego, hot spots of the pandemic, potentially spreading the virus and providing a textbook example of health officials’ biggest fears about such large gatherings. The event showed the challenges authorities face in enforcing health orders. (Gafni, 7/26)
Philadelphia Inquirer: What It’s Like To Be A Server During The Pandemic: ‘The Things That I Loved About My Job — They Were Gone.’
Those who have returned describe a transformation in the nature of waiting tables. Restaurants that follow — and enforce — city and state health guidelines have become, for some, politically charged environments, confronting servers with another choice: to appeal to cavalier clientele to respect rules, or say nothing and take on even more risk. “I don’t know why wearing a mask is politicized,” said one server. “If you don’t want to wear a mask, don’t come in. That’s also your choice.” In turn, many restaurant workers are reevaluating their current jobs and their futures in the hospitality industry, which employs roughly two in 10 Philadelphians. (Ladd, 7/26)
AP: Workers Praise Disney Virus Safety, But Will Visitors Come?
Every week, it seems, Kaila Barker, her husband and their five children change their minds about whether to travel from their home in Connecticut to Florida’s Walt Disney World as planned in September. On the one hand, the lack of crowds means more opportunities to go on rides without long waits. On the other hand, Connecticut and Florida have implemented pandemic-related quarantines for each other’s residents and visitors, and the Barkers worry whether the Disney “magic” will get lost with mandatory mask-wearing for visitors and workers, temperature checks and no parades, fireworks shows or up-close “meet-and-greets” with costumed characters. (Schneider, 7/26)
Philadelphia Inquirer: New Rules For Day Camp In A COVID-19 Summer: Kids In Masks, Gallons Of Sanitizer, No Tag
Throughout Philadelphia and its suburbs, harried local officials and private camp directors have had to make nearly impossible decisions about how many fewer kids to bring in, or whether to just shut their gates, as the pandemic has bent, twisted, or full-on wrecked the season for children stuck at home, hungering for experience. In many cases, camp owners must balance the survival of their businesses with the health of employees and other people’s kids. Meanwhile, a multitude of uneasy parents have had to weigh coronavirus fears against their kids’ need to have a non-virtual summer. (Lubrano, 7/27)
The New York Times: Tailors Know New Yorkers’ Pandemic Secret: ‘Everybody Got Fat!’
With weddings postponed and offices shut, business was bleak at Woodside Tailor Shop in Queens during the long months of pandemic lockdown. There was no need for party dress alterations, or any pressure for slacks to be hemmed. But about three months in, things started picking back up in June, with one particular service in sudden demand: People needed a bit more breathing room in their clothing. “Everybody got fat!” said Porfirio Arias, 66, a tailor at Woodside. “It’s not only in New York. It’s all over the world that people got fat.” (Maslin Nir, 7/25)
Kaiser Health News: ‘It’s About Love And Solidarity’: Mutual Aid Unites NYC Neighbors Facing COVID
Nancy Perez, a 45-year-old resident of the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, contracted COVID-19 in March. She stayed quarantined in her room for a month to isolate from her two sons and grandson. A few days before she got the virus, she’d met a volunteer with Bed-Stuy Strong — one of the many mutual aid groups around the country that have rallied to provide help in the face of the pandemic. Bed-Stuy Strong assembled an army of volunteers to help vulnerable neighbors with food deliveries and basic supplies. While Perez was in isolation, volunteers regularly delivered cooked food for her sons, ages 17 and 20, and her 4-year-old grandson. (Lawrence, 7/27)
Kaiser Health News: Last Thing Patients Need During Pandemic: Being Last To Know A Doctor Left Network
As the coronavirus spread silently through New York City early this year, Deborah Koeppel had an appointment with her cardiologist and two visits with her primary care doctor. Both physicians are members of Concorde Medical Group, a practice in Manhattan with an office conveniently located a few blocks from where Koeppel works. She soon received notices telling her — after the fact — that those doctors were not in her health plan’s network of providers. According to the notices, she was on the hook for $849 in out-of-network cost sharing for three visits, which typically would cost her nothing from in-network providers. (Andrews, 7/27)
The New York Times: In Era Of Sickness, Doctors Prescribe Unusual Cure: Voting
The sign is easy to miss in the waiting room of the emergency department at Massachusetts General Hospital, next to the reception desk and a hand sanitizer pump. “Register to vote here,” it says, above an iPad attached to a podium. The kiosk has stood there since November, before the pandemic began and stayed there through the worst weeks of April, when 12 gasping patients were put on ventilators during a single grueling 12-hour shift. Now, as the number of coronavirus patients has slowed to a trickle, Dr. Alister Martin, the 31-year-old emergency room doctor who built the kiosk, is determined to keep trying to register voters. (Stockman, 7/25)
In other news —
The Hill: CDC Investigating Salmonella Outbreak In 23 States
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is investigating an outbreak of salmonella across 23 states, with reports of hundreds of people being sickened. The federal agency announced in a release on Friday an additional 87 illnesses, and eight new states had been affected since the last update on the matter Tuesday. (Deese, 7/25)
The Washington Post: ADHD Video Game Treatment Approved By FDA
Can a video game help children struggling with ADHD? That question inspired hopeful headlines last month after the Food and Drug Administration permitted marketing of the first digital game that may be prescribed to treat children ages 8 to 12 who have been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In EndeavorRx, designed for iPhones and iPads, children guide an avatar surfing through molten lava and an icy river, dodging fires and icebergs while grabbing flying objects. The game is not yet available for purchase, nor has a price been released, but its Boston-based developer, Akili Interactive Labs, may now feature its unique status in ads and pursue coverage by insurance plans. (Ellison, 7/26)
AP: TV Reporter Credits Viewer With Noticing Cancerous Lump
A television news reporter in Florida is crediting an eagle-eyed viewer for noticing a lump on her neck and emailing her that she should get it checked out. Victoria Price, a reporter for WFLA in Tampa, followed the advice and was diagnosed with cancer. Price tweeted that she is undergoing surgery on Monday to remove the tumor, her thyroid and a couple of lymph nodes. (7/26)
The Washington Post: References To White Men Still Dominate College Biology Textbooks, Survey Says
Charles Darwin. Carolus Linnaeus. Gregor Mendel. They’re all men. They’re all white. And their names appear in every biology book included in a new analysis of college textbooks. According to the survey, mentions of white men still dominate biology textbooks despite growing recognition in other media of the scientific contributions of women and people of color. The good news, the researchers say: Scientists in textbooks are getting more diverse. The bad news: If diversification continues at its current pace, it will take another 500 years for mentions of black/African American scientists to accurately reflect the number of black college biology students. (Brookshire, 7/26)
