Viewpoints: Colleges Must Step Up Mental Health Services; Leaked Roe Document Impacts Supreme Court Image

USA Today: Mental Health Must Become A Priority On College And University Campuses
The top ranked colleges and universities have poured millions of dollars into reporting campus rates of positive COVID-19 tests. Many of these colleges and universities also have invested heavily in mandatory regular asymptomatic testing, even in spring of 2022, when hospitals have close to zero patients admitted due to COVID-19 infection. Meanwhile, though death from COVID-19 is exceedingly rare among college students, it is well known from pre-pandemic data that approximately 100 U.S. college students die by suicide each month. According to more recent Centers for Disease and Control Prevention data, 1 in 4 adults ages 18-24 contemplated suicide in June 2020. (Dr. Catherine Sarkisian and Dr. Marion Mass, 5/2)

Bloomberg: Leak Of Supreme Court Roe V. Wade Draft Weakens Justices' Legitimacy
The leaked draft of a majority Supreme Court decision by Justice Samuel Alito overturning Roe v. Wade means several things. First, it indicates that in the justices’ private conference, at least five members of the court voted to reverse the 1973 abortion precedent. They aren’t bound by that vote, which they can change up to the day the final opinion is released. Almost all first drafts undergo significant revision based on discussion and debate among the justices. So the second point to make is that Roe isn’t yet overturned, though it very likely will be. (Noah Feldman, 5/3)

Los Angeles Times: The Brazenly Political Supreme Court Takes Away The Right To Abortion 
Although it is shocking that someone in the Supreme Court leaked a purported draft of the opinion overruling Roe vs. Wade, no one should be the least bit surprised that it is what the justices are about to do. The confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett meant that there were five justices who were almost certain votes to overrule Roe. The oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health on Dec. 1 erased any doubt when Justices Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh made clear that is how they would vote, joining Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch to overrule the 49 year-old precedent that protects a woman’s right to abortion. (Erwin Chemerinsky, 5/2)

The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore’s Guaranteed Income Pilot Among First To Focus On Health Influence 
When mayor Brandon Scott announced an unprecedented direct investment into Baltimore residents, a guaranteed income pilot program that will give 200 randomly selected young adult parents in the city $1,000 a month for 24 months, with no strings attached, he joined a wave of mayors across the country who are investing in people who need it most. Baltimore’s pilot is critical to the nation, as it will be among the first to focus on how guaranteed income influences the health of family and family members. While these initiatives have often focused on improving people’s financial standing, there has been a missed opportunity to understand the full power of guaranteed income initiatives on other parts of people’s lives. (Lorraine T. Dean and Sevly Snguon, 5/2)

Stat: The Roots Of Burnout Start Early. See: Applying To Medical School 
Approximately 60,000 medical school applicants will be finishing a nearly year-long admissions process this month, close to the second anniversary of Dr. Lorna Breen’s suicide. Breen’s untimely death in 2020 inspired a new law to provide funding for preventing burnout by improving mental health treatment and promoting resiliency of health care providers. This new law won’t prevent physician burnout. Before the first day of medical school, aspiring doctors have already been exposed to prolonged toxic stress from an admissions process that extends over a 12-month period, during which their future is in the hands of medical school administrators. (Anne N. Thorndike, 5/3)

Stat: Medicare At 60 Would Have Harmful Unintended Consequences 
In an era of rising inflation and trillion-dollar deficits, there appears to be growing bipartisan support for fiscal restraint. President Biden’s recent budget proposal featured more than $1 trillion in deficit-reducing policies. And his administration is now promising that the proposals once comprising the president’s Build Back Better agenda will be, at worst, deficit neutral. But despite the changing fiscal environment, many in Congress are still eager to enact a costly and risky expansion of Medicare. (Tom Church and Daniel L. Heil, 5/3)

Los Angeles Times: Affirmative Action Bans Hurt Health Equity 
In 2015, the Assn. of American Medical Colleges published a startling statistic: Fewer Black men matriculated at medical school in 2014 (515) than in 1978 (542). These 515 Black men represented just 2.5% of all medical school matriculants in 2014. Although more recent enrollment numbers indicate marginal improvement, Americans who identify as Black, Hispanic, American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian or from other Pacific Islander groups remain grossly underrepresented in medicine relative to their proportion in the U.S. population. (Utibe R. Essien, Dan P.Ly and Anupam B. Jena, 5/3)