Viewpoints: Congress Needs To Force Drugmakers To Fess Up To Wrongs Just Like Tobacco Companies Did; Fix Substandard Health Care For Immigrants In Detention

The New York Times: It’s Time For Pharmaceutical Companies To Have Their Tobacco Moment
Twenty-five years ago, Congress hauled before it the top executives of the nation’s seven largest tobacco companies and forced them to make a number of long-overdue admissions about cigarettes — including that they might cause cancer and heart disease and that the executives had suppressed evidence of their addictive potential. In one dramatic exchange, when pressed by Representatives Henry Waxman and Ron Wyden, the executives denied that their products were addictive but admitted that they would not want their own children to use them. (2/24)

Los Angeles Times: Immigrants Are Suffering In Detention. They Need Adequate Healthcare Now
This week, a 45-year-old immigrant in the U.S. illegally died in Border Patrol custody. His death follows the December deaths of 7-year-old Jakelin Caal and 8-year-old Felipe Alonzo-Gomez in United States immigration custody, both of which prompted demands for improving healthcare for immigrants in detention. As a physician who has evaluated dozens of individuals in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention for legal groups and human rights organizations, I know that high-profile deaths are only one small piece of the story of severely substandard healthcare in America’s immigration detention system. (Altaf Saadi, 2/25)

The Washington Post: The Trump Administration Cannot Be Allowed To Make Orphans Out Of Migrant Children
Lawyers for the Trump administration object to the suggestion that officials have a moral and humanitarian duty to track children and reunify them with their parents after they have been separated by the government. Sure, said Justice Department attorneys in federal court the other day, hundreds and possibly thousands more migrant children remain split from their parents than previously acknowledged. But it really would be a headache to patch up families torn apart by the administration’s war on immigrants. That’s a paraphrase, but not by much. Requiring the government to determine the number and whereabouts of migrant babies, toddlers and teens wrenched from their parents during a nine-month span when family separations were carried out covertly would “blow the case into some other galaxy of a task.” (2/24)

The Hill: Building Bridges For Action: Ending The HIV And Opioid Epidemic
In his State of the union address, president Trump pledged to end the HIV epidemic in the United States in 10 years. It has been reported that the administration’s new budget proposal will include $250 million in new funding per year in the first year of this initiative for heavily impacted counties and some heavily impacted states, as well as Puerto Rico, with more increases slated for subsequent years over the coming decade. Several national HIV advocacy organizations have announced that they are “cautiously encouraged” by the president’s statement and this new commitment. As political appointees in the Obama White House who worked on HIV/AIDS and drug policy issues, we are also “cautiously encouraged”. Nonetheless, many questions remain. (Regina Labelle and Jeffrey St. Crowley, 2/24)

The Washington Post: Why Crying Over A Terminal Patient Made Me A Better Doctor
Mr. C’s brain tumor seemed to be reaching its endgame. His wife had called frantically to report new confusion, word-finding difficulties and visual deficits that suddenly developed despite ongoing treatment. We hastily arranged for an MRI scan to confirm what we now collectively came to suspect: Cancer cells from his tumor had invaded previously unaffected parts of the brain. Much of what is seen as a medical trainee continues to haunt you because it can never be unseen. In my 10 years as a doctor and medical student, I have been witness to inordinate human suffering and unexpected tragedies. And the emotions associated with these experiences went largely unexplored because I had constructed a mental dam over the years to contain them and to prevent their flow into my daily work as a doctor. (Jalal Baig, 2/24)

The New York Times: What Baby Formula Does For Fathers
When my wife and I put a bottle of baby formula to our son’s lips for the first time, it felt like a great defeat. My wife had been struggling day and night to get her breast milk flowing. While we supplemented with formula in the first few days, we hoped it would be a rare occurrence. We turned our house into a milk-making laboratory and invited in consultants who showed us how to encourage our son’s sucking with a strange contraption that involved tubes and a syringe. When my wife wasn’t trying to feed the baby, she was hooked up to a pumping machine. We were all miserable, and at a certain point it became clear that the breast milk would not be enough. (Nathaniel Popper, 2/23)

Stat: Why Every Child Should See A Black Male Doctor 
Misperceptions of black men persist among individuals who have little real-world contact with them. I’m willing to bet that when many Americans close their eyes and imagine a black man, what comes to mind may not be the most positive picture. But it should be. The truth of the matter is that most black men are people with normal jobs and lives like everyone else. Yet that’s difficult for people to appreciate if they don’t see them regularly.Being cared for by a black male doctor can help change this narrative. I see this almost every day at work. When children watch their mom or dad speak with me, they see that their parent respects me. The doctor-patient relationship also builds a special trust. I still vividly remember encounters with my own childhood physician, Dr. Nina Miller, a white woman I revere to this day. (Dale Okorodudu, 2/25)

The New York Times: It’s Not That Men Don’t Know What Consent Is
“Think of a bear.” Shafia Zaloom, a health teacher in San Francisco, stood in front of her 10th grade sex ed class. It was the first day of the spring term and “bear,” at least when it was spelled that way, was not what the students expected to discuss. Once their ursine images were firmly in place, Ms. Zaloom asked for descriptions. One student had pictured a grizzly; another was thinking about a black bear cub; there were polar bears and gummy bears. Personally, I had imagined Yogi. The point, Ms. Zaloom said, is that in a sexual situation, you can’t make assumptions. (Peggy Orenstein, 2/23)

Stat: Impact Investing: A New Way To Fund Cures For Cancer
Impact investing is changing the world, offering socially conscious investors opportunities to drive social and environmental change without sacrificing financial returns. It’s become common in sectors like renewable energy and education. But what about health care? It currently ranks seventh among sectors receiving the most capital from impact investors. That’s not high enough to kick-start momentum in the advancement of precision medicines that will save millions of lives. But it won’t take much to change that. (Richard G. Hamermesh and Kathy E. Giusti, 2/25)

Los Angeles Times: After His First Overdose, My Husband Promised It Wouldn't Happen Again. I Believed Him 
The first time I saved my husband’s life, his face was the color of saturated denim. I found him curled on the floor, body fighting itself. Limbs constricted, shoulders twitching, he snorted desperately as his lungs gasped for oxygen. I yelled his name, shook his arm, slapped his face. The sputtering sound came less often, and he was so, so blue. “Has your husband ingested or administered any opioids?” the paramedic asked after they pushed me aside. (Lauren Mauldin, 2/24)

The New York Times: Utah Against Health Insurance
In November, the people of Utah voted to provide health insurance for about 150,000 state residents who lacked it. Last week, Utah’s legislators overruled their own constituents and took away insurance from about 60,000 of those 150,000 people. The legislators claimed they were trying to save money, but that’s not a credible rationale: The federal government would have covered the bulk of the cost. The true reason — which the legislators weren’t willing to admit publicly — was a philosophical objection to government-provided health insurance. (David Leonhardt, 2/22)