Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Study: Later Diagnoses Triggering Higher Death Rate Among Blacks
Modern Healthcare: Care Delays Cause Blacks To Bear Brunt Of COVID-19 Illnesses, Deaths
Black Americans are more likely than white patients to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19, even when controlling for socio-economic status or health comorbidities, according to new research. Researchers analyzed electronic health records of more than 1,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases at Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health between Jan.1 and April 8. They found Black patients were 2.7 times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19 after adjusting for income, age, sex and underlying health conditions. (Johnson, 7/7)
NBC News: Millions Of Americans Are Going Hungry As The Pandemic Erodes Incomes And Destroys Communities
As jobs vanish, incomes drop and food prices rise, more Americans are going to bed hungry — and advocates warn that without intervention from Congress, those numbers could rise to a level unseen in modern times. “People who never thought they'd experience food insecurity are now seeking food assistance,” said Luis Guardia, president of the nonprofit Food Research & Action Center. (White, 7/7)
ABC News: Meatpacking Facilities Still Present Challenge To Containing COVID-19, CDC Says
As COVID-19 cases continue to surge across the country this summer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday meatpacking plants still present challenges in preventing transmission of the virus and that racial or ethnic minority workers are at much higher risk of getting sick and dying. A new CDC analysis found that 16,233 workers in meat and poultry processing plants were infected with COVID-19 in April or May, according to data reported by 23 states. Eighty-seven percent of the workers were racial or ethnic minorities and 86 have died. (Ebbs, 7/7)
AP: 'Desperation Science' Slows The Hunt For Coronavirus Drugs
Desperate to solve the deadly conundrum of COVID-19, the world is clamoring for fast answers and solutions from a research system not built for haste. The ironic, and perhaps tragic, result: Scientific shortcuts have slowed understanding of the disease and delayed the ability to find out which drugs help, hurt or have no effect at all. (Marchione, 7/8)
Stat: A Disease Detective On The Frontlines Of WHO's Covid-19 Response
People who know Maria Van Kerkhove describe her as someone who has worked her whole life to be in this place, at this moment. This place is at the core of the World Health Organization’s coronavirus team, this moment is when the WHO is trying to steer the globe’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. No one would expect such a job to be anything less than highly stressful, but lately, the ride has been a rocky one. (Branswell, 7/8)
AP: Iowa Governor To Use $50M In Federal Money For Mental Health
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday she would spend $50 million in federal funding on adult and childhood mental health and substance abuse programs. The money is part of the state’s allocation from the $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package, known as the CARES Act, that was approved by Congress and signed by the president in March. (Pitt, 7/7)
NBC News: Nearly Half The Employees At An Arizona ICE Detention Center Have Tested Positive For COVID-19
Nearly half the employees at an Arizona ICE detention center have tested positive for COVID-19, with a guard dying of the disease, and according to two employees and 14 migrants, a shortage of staff has left detainees in their cells without access to showers, laundry and other necessities. CoreCivic, the company contracted to run the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, said 127 of about 300 total CoreCivic employees at Eloy have tested positive since the start of the pandemic, although some have recovered and are back to work. (Ainsley and Soboroff, 7/8)
Kaiser Health News: COVID Cuts A Lethal Path Through San Quentin’s Death Row
The old men live in cramped spaces and breathe the same ventilated air. Many are frail, laboring with heart disease, liver and prostate cancer, tuberculosis, dementia. And now, with the coronavirus advancing through their ranks, they are falling one after the next. This is not a nursing home, not in any traditional sense. It is California’s death row at San Quentin State Prison, north of San Francisco. Its 670 residents are serial killers, child murderers, men who killed for money and drugs, or shot their victims as part of their wasted gangster lives. Some have been there for decades, growing old behind bars. One is 90, and more than 100 are 65 or older. (Morain, 7/8)
ABC News: Florida Teen Who Died Of COVID-19 Attended Large Church Gathering, Was Given Hydroxychloroquine At Home
A Florida teenager who died of complications from COVID-19 had attended a church event with a hundred other children two weeks before her death and was given hydroxychloroquine by her parents, health officials said. Carsyn Leigh Davis of Fort Myers died on June 23, two days after turning 17, at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami. (Deliso, 7/7)
CNN: Can The AC Filter In Your Home, Office Or Local Mall Protect You From Covid-19?
When New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced last week that malls in New York could not reopen until they installed high-efficiency particulate air filters capable of trapping the virus that causes Covid-19, Harvard environmental health researcher Joseph Gardner Allen was thrilled. "I've been writing consistently since early February about how healthy buildings should be the first line of defense against the novel coronavirus," said Allen, who directs the Healthy Buildings program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (LaMotte, 7/7)
Stat: Proving Predictions Wrong, Health Tech Funding Keeps Climbing
Despite forecasts that investments in health tech would dry up by mid-year, venture funding for digital health companies continues to surge, a new report finds. The report, from health-tech-focused venture firm Rock Health, projects that 2020 will shatter annual records for investments, number of deals, and the average size of such deals. That projection counters previous predictions that the uptick in investments seen earlier this year would subside as the pandemic continued to take a toll. (Isselbacher, 7/8)
ABC News: How Charmin Workers Adapted To The COVID-19 Pandemic To Meet Demand For Toilet Paper
In mid-March, as the coronavirus began to spread through the U.S. and the possibility of stay-at-home orders became real, scores of people became toilet paper hoarders. As companies scrambled to meet the demand -- some, like Cottonelle, even encouraging people to “share a square” -- many people were left wondering, “Why toilet paper, of all products?” (Kapetaneas, Sandell and Rivas, 7/7)
CNN: Opening Night Major League Soccer Match Is Postponed Due To Positive Covid-19 Tests
MLS is not quite back. Major League Soccer's MLS is Back Tournament match between Nashville SC and Chicago Fire FC has been postponed, the league announced in a statement Tuesday. Five Nashville SC players have tested positive for coronavirus since arriving in Orlando, Florida last week. Two players received positive results last weekend and the other three received positive results Monday night. (Sterling, 7/7)
