Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Antibiotic Resistance Is Already Here; Breastfeeding Isn't The Only Answer To Formula Shortage
USA Today: After COVID Ends, Antimicrobial-Resistant Bugs Pose A New Challenge
Data by Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that COVID-19 deaths approached the 1 million mark Thursday. To mark the "tragic milestone," President Joe Biden directed flags on government buildings to be flown at half-staff for five days. COVID-19 reminded us of what the world looked like without the right diagnostics, treatments or vaccines for just one virus. Now, imagine if most of the medicines we rely on today for the most common illnesses – strep throat, sinus infections or urinary tract infections – became ineffective. (Dr. Jerome Adams, 5/12)
NBC News: Baby Formula Shortage Leaves Mothers Wrongly Shamed For Not Breastfeeding
The infant formula shortage is an ongoing nightmare for American families with young babies as parents find themselves without the basic food and fluids to keep their infants alive and healthy. As a pediatrician and mother, it’s horrifying to see that, rather than unifying the country in a concerted effort to address this emergency, the shortage is being used by many people to further the stigma against infant formula — and the shaming of parents who use it and the babies who need it. (Dr. Rebekah Diamond, 5/12)
The New York Times: Russia’s Attacks On Ukraine Health Centers Show A Vicious Pattern
On Feb. 24, the first day of the war in Ukraine, a Russian attack on a hospital in the eastern city of Vuhledar killed four people and wounded 10 others. The next day, elsewhere in Ukraine, a cancer center and a children’s hospital were hit. And the attacks on the nation’s health care infrastructure kept coming, at a rate of at least two a day, by some counts — hospitals, clinics, maternity wards, a nursing home, an addiction treatment facility, a blood bank. (Lucy King and Jonah M. Kessel, 5/13)
Newsweek: Record Numbers Of Americans Are Dying Of Overdoses. Instead Of Justice, We Get Theater
The Guggenheim Museum in New York City announced this week that it would be removing the Sackler's nameplate off of their arts center in response to pressure from activists. "The Guggenheim and the Mortimer D. Sackler family have agreed to rename the arts education center," a museum spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday. The Guggenheim was not alone; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York also removed the Sackler name from a gallery, as did the National Gallery in London this week. (Peter Pischke, 5/12)
Los Angeles Daily News: A Bankrupt Argument For Single-Payer Health Care
Are Americans going bankrupt because of medical debt? Leading progressives seem to think so. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., recently called for all medical debt to be canceled. “‘Medical debt’ and ‘Medical bankruptcy’ are two phrases that should not exist in the United States of America,” he said after the major credit bureaus recently announced they’d remove paid-off medical debt previously sent to collections from credit reports. (Sally C. Pipes, 5/11)
Columbus Dispatch: 1 In 4 Nursing Home Residents Suffer Or Witness Abuse. Camera Law Will Help
In March, a new law went into effect in Ohio allowing families to install cameras in nursing home rooms to monitor their loved one’s well-being. This legal change allowing cameras in nursing homes is an added layer of protection for Ohio’s most vulnerable patient population. Lawmakers passed the legislation after a decade of advocacy by one Ohio man, Steve Piskor, on behalf of his mother, Esther. Legislators named the law in honor of her: “Esther’s Law.” (Michael Brevda, 5/12)
