Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Climate Change Is Making People Ill; Makena Should Be Pulled From Market
NBC News: How America's Weirdly Warm Winter Could Make Us Sick
Living in a world affected by climate change is a part of our daily reality. It is what climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe refers to as “global weirding.” All last year effects were glaringly present, from heat extremes over the summer to a record hurricane and wildfire season and, now, to warmer winter temperatures that are marked by winter mosquitoes and wildfires. While the change in seasons is confusing, to say the least, what is most concerning to me, as a physician, is what this warmer weather means for public health. (Neelu Tummala, 2/21)
Los Angeles Times: FDA Should Pull Ineffective Pregnancy Drug Makena
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration accelerated the approval of a drug called Makena meant to prevent premature births. Now there’s mounting evidence that the drug does not work. The FDA should use its authority to pull Makena from the market until and unless the company that makes it can prove that it is effective. (2/24)
Miami Herald: Florida GOP Lawmakers Seek To Ban Abortions After 15 Weeks
The Florida Legislature is fast tracking legislation to deny basic healthcare to the state’s nearly 4 million women of child-bearing age. HB 5/SB 146, which would ban abortions in our state after 15 weeks, provides no exception for cases of rape, incest or human trafficking. (Alison Yager, 2/23)
The Baltimore Sun: Losing My Son To Disease Before His Third Birthday Was Heartbreaking, But I’m Grateful I Had The Paid Leave To Care For Him; Many Don’t
My beautiful boy Alex died when he was 2 and a half years old. He was gentle, sweet, headstrong, funny and quirky. He loved the color yellow, the letter F, the number 5 and fish. Despite the tragedy of Alex’s death, I was lucky. Unlike many working Marylanders, I had a position where I accrued leave, and my fellow employees could donate leave to me when I exhausted mine. I was able to care for and be with my son throughout his illness and receive paid leave. I was able to focus all my energy on taking care of my child. I did not have the added stress of needing to maintain a job. Above all, I was able to spend more time with him and to enjoy my child during his all too brief life. For these reasons I wholeheartedly support the Time to Care Act, filed as House Bill 8 and Senate Bill 275. (Lisa Barkan, 2/23)
Stat: A 'More, More, More' Approach To Cancer Screening Is Harmful
Enormous progress has been made against cancer in the last 50 years — at least medically. Our emotional relationship with the emperor of all maladies, however, is years out of date, and that lag is causing great harm. Many cancers can now be cured or treated as chronic conditions. In his 2015 memoir “The Death of Cancer,” Vincent DeVita, a former director of the National Cancer Institute, estimates it’s as many as two-thirds. Yet most people, when asked for the first word that comes to mind when they hear the word cancer, still answer “death.” (David Ropeik, 2/24)
Los Angeles Times: Are Electromagnetic Weapons Involved? Taking Victims Of 'Havana Syndrome' Seriously
The U.S. investigation into mysterious symptoms known as the “Havana syndrome” could provide Americans with long-overdue insights into the emerging threats of directed-energy devices. Hundreds of U.S. government personnel — mostly spies and diplomats abroad — have reported piercing pain, unexplained sounds, vertigo, vision loss, memory loss, insomnia and signs of brain damage since 2016, when dozens were afflicted in Cuba. (Jean Guerrero, 2/24)
Also —
Stat: What I Learned From Paul Farmer: Treat Systems Around The Patient
As a young physician trying to understand how I could help improve health care delivery for marginalized patients, I was dismayed by the enormity of the barriers — economic, social, and political — that impede the path toward good health. Having grown up in the politically fragile and economically disadvantaged Kashmir region of India, I was all too familiar with the rhetoric local and global leaders employ to get out of answering difficult questions about helping people with no real power. Early in my career as a physician, I was fortunate to come across the writings of Paul Farmer, a physician and global health champion who passed away unexpectedly on Monday, who was championing a radical notion: that people from all backgrounds living in all regions of the world deserve high-quality health care. (Junaid Nabi, 2/23)
USA Today: Dr. Paul Farmer Leaves A Legacy Of Caring In HIV/AIDS Treatment
The public health world is mourning the death of a visionary and leader in global public health, a world-renowned anthropologist and medical doctor, Dr. Paul Farmer. The founder of Partners in Health was 62 when he died Monday in Butaro, Rwanda, at a teaching hospital he founded. (Carli Pierson, 2/23)
