Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: ChatGPT Health Appears To Just Be Winging It; What Happens When MAHA Meets Public Health
The Washington Post: I Let ChatGPT Analyze A Decade Of My Apple Watch Data. Then I Called My Doctor.
Like many people who strap on an Apple Watch every day, I’ve long wondered what a decade of that data might reveal about me. So I joined a brief wait list and gave ChatGPT access to the 29 million steps and 6 million heartbeat measurements stored in my Apple Health app. Then I asked the bot to grade my cardiac health. (Geoffrey A. Fowler, 1/26)
Stat: Our Podcast ‘Why Should I Trust You?’ Connects MAHA And Public Health. Here’s What We’ve Learned
When Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s allies at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention upended the childhood vaccine schedule, public health leaders reacted with alarm, warning that the change would sow confusion, undermine trust in vaccines, and put children at risk. For many in public health, this moment felt like the final straw, proof that the Make America Healthy Again movement is dangerous, unserious, and must be fought head-on or ignored altogether. That instinct is understandable. It is also wrong. (Tom W. Johnson and Brinda Adhikari, 1/26)
Stat: Shared Decision-Making On Vaccines Is The Right Approach
The recent overhaul of the U.S. pediatric vaccine schedule under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touched off a firestorm of criticism — most of it for demoting six vaccines from routinely recommended to “shared clinical decision-making” (SCDM). The implication was that these six vaccines are optional, less safe, or less useful than the routinely recommended ones. (Peter M. Sandman, 1/26)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Trust Doctors, Not RFK, On Flu Shots
Leave it to the Trump administration to pick this particular moment — deep into one of the worst flu seasons America has seen in decades — to officially shrug off the importance of flu shots. As must be said more and more these days regarding official health recommendations from this government: Don’t listen. (1/25)
The Boston Globe: America's Health Care Crisis Isn't Inevitable. It's Misdiagnosed.
Washington keeps arguing over who should pay the bill while ignoring what’s driving costs in the first place — a policy failure decades in the making. (Ashish K. Jha, 1/26)
