Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Tricky Question: Should Kids Go Out On Halloween?
The Washington Post: Should Kids Go Trick-Or-Treating During A Pandemic? Experts Share Their Advice.
The question many households are asking during Halloween 2020 — Should we let kids go trick-or-treating during the pandemic? — has no easy answer, like seemingly all questions related to the novel coronavirus. Outdoor activities are generally said to be safer than indoor ones. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released guidance on Halloween, saying that collecting candy door to door is high-risk. This year’s holiday had all the hallmarks of a perfect night: It’s on a Saturday, and there will be a full moon. But with pandemic numbers predicted to spike in autumn, how should parents handle eager children who crave old-fashioned fun and normalcy during Halloween? (Patel, 9/28)
NPR: 'Freedges' Offer Free Food In Neighborhoods To Those In Need
Marina Vergara has been involved in distributing food to Los Angeles' large homeless population for years through her work with a nonprofit that supports the chronically unhoused. But this spring, she heard about something new. Free food refrigerators, or "freedges," were springing up all over New York as the deadly pandemic fueled a striking rise in wider food insecurity and hunger. Vergara reached out to the members of the collective who were setting up them up. (Westervelt, 9/29)
The Washington Post: You Might Want To Rethink Using A Stability Ball As Your Desk Chair
If you bought a stability ball to use at your pandemic home work station, or dusted off the unused one in the basement, you might want to sit down for this reality check — on a traditional chair. Claims that stability balls will strengthen your core have little backing in research. In fact, sitting on a stability ball, also known as a balance ball, exercise ball or Swiss ball, could have detrimental effects. Manufacturers often promote stability balls as both workout equipment and furniture. Advertisements assert that although the products can be used to make exercises more challenging — by doing situps atop the balls, for example, or propping your feet on them to do pushups — simply using them as desk chairs improves posture and facilitates a core-strengthening workout. (Chang, 9/29)
In sports news —
The Washington Post: What To Know About NFL’s First Covid-19 Outbreak
Even though most games have been played without fans in the stands, the NFL had navigated the novel coronavirus pandemic with relative smoothness through three weeks of the regular season. That changed Tuesday, when news broke that eight members of the Tennessee Titans — three players and five staff members — had tested positive for the coronavirus in the aftermath of their game Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings, injecting uncertainty into the schedule for the first time since the summer, when the pandemic forced the cancellation of preseason games and required teams to significantly alter how they went about their daily operations. (Bonesteel, 9/29)
The Washington Post: NHL Ends Its Bubble As Tampa Bay Lightning Hoist The Stanley Cup
On Monday, the NHL released its second-to-last coronavirus testing update from the bubble, which stated it had administered 33,174 tests since teams arrived in Edmonton and Toronto on July 26. In that span, there were no positive results. (Pell, 9/29)
