Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Ukraine's President Tests Positive; Denmark Shelves Plans To Slaughter Mink
AP: Ukraine's President Tests Positive For COVID-19
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced Monday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus and will be working in self-isolation while being treated. “There are no lucky people in the world for whom COVID-19 does not pose a threat,” Zelenskiy tweeted. “However, I feel good. I promise to isolate myself and I continue to work.” (11/9)
In other COVID news —
The Guardian: Denmark Drops Plans For Mass Mink Cull After Covid Mutation Fears
The Danish government has dropped an attempt to pass emergency legislation allowing it to cull all mink in the country. Last Wednesday the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said all the country’s mink would be culled due to fears that a Covid-19 mutation moving from mink to humans could jeopardise future vaccines. But opposition to the move swiftly emerged. “Massive doubts over whether this cull is properly scientifically based [have] come to light now,” said Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, the leader of Denmark’s largest opposition party, Venstre. “At the same time the government is taking away the livelihood of a large number of people without actually having the legal rights to do so.” (Kevany and Carstensen, 11/9)
Bloomberg: Denmark’s Top Covid Scientist Says Mink Threat Isn’t Going Away
Mink farms pose a serious threat to human health in the age of Covid, and will continue to do so even if individual mink mutations of the virus are fought back, according to Kare Molbak, Denmark’s top epidemiologist. The arrival of Covid-19 in the Nordic country was a clear “game changer” for its mink farmers, Molbak told newspaper Politiken in an interview published on Tuesday. Maintaining the industry now “represents far too high a national health risk,” he said. (Buttler, 11/10)
The New York Times: Covid Infections In Animals Prompt Scientific Concern
The decision this week by the Danish government to kill millions of mink because of coronavirus concerns, effectively wiping out a major national industry, has put the spotlight on simmering worries among scientists and conservationists about the vulnerability of animals to the pandemic virus, and what infections among animals could mean for humans. (Gorman, 11/8)
Also —
The Washington Post: Mexico To Legalize Marijuana Under Supreme Court Order
It's the moment for which advocates of legal marijuana here have been waiting: Mexican lawmakers, working under a court order, have until mid-December to finalize rules that will make the country the world's largest market for legal pot. Advocates have long argued that legalization would put a dent in the black market; allow for safe, regulated consumption; create jobs; and cut down on crime. (Lang, 11/8)
NPR: Why Americans Have Been Deceived About Canada's Health Care System
Every election brings with it debates over health care. Amanda Aronczyk, with our Planet Money podcast, noticed that the word Canada keeps coming up again and again in those debates and how the Canadian system would supposedly never work here. As a Canadian living in the U.S., to Amanda, that was confusing. So she went digging. (Aronczyk, 11/6)
KHN: Trump’s Anti-Abortion Zeal Shook Fragile Health Systems Around The World
In Ethiopia, health clinics for teenagers once supported by U.S. foreign aid closed down. In Kenya, a decades-long effort to integrate HIV testing and family planning unraveled. And in Nepal, intrepid government workers who once traversed the Himalayas to spread information about reproductive health were halted. Around the world, countries that depend on U.S. foreign aid have scrapped or scaled back ambitious public health projects, refashioning their health systems over the past four years to comport with President Donald Trump’s sweeping anti-abortion restrictions that went further than any Republican president before him. (Varney, 11/10)
