Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Conway's Role In Opioid Battle; Remembering Victims Of AIDS
The New York Times: Kellyanne Conway Might As Well Be ‘Opioid Czar’
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, has no public health background, a reputation for bending the truth, and a knack for generating government ethics complaints. Yet Ms. Conway does have the ear of the president. She has also studied America’s opioid epidemic in recent months as part of her portfolio. She is not the “opioids czar,” as some news outlets reported this week, but her stepping out as point person on the government response to this public health crisis stirred hope of concrete action from a White House that so far has offered little more than talk. (11/30)
USA Today: On World AIDS Day, Let’s Remember Disease Is Still A Brutal Killer
Today, Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, we all wear red ribbons to show our support and unity with the 36.7 million individuals who are living with HIV/AIDS — a disease responsible for taking the lives of approximately 2,000 Floridians alone, according to the Center for AIDS Research at Emory University. ... While raising awareness about prevention can minimize its continual spread, we must also be committed to helping those who live with this disease and its symptoms, many of whom are underprivileged. (State Sen. René Garcia, 11/30)
The Washington Post: Trump Wants To Gut America’s Progress Against AIDS
Trump’s tweets are also distracting from other important matters of governance. And here is one that can’t get lost in the general madness: The Trump administration is proposing a reduction in funding and a shift in strategy in the fight against global AIDS that together would increase infections, cost lives and threaten the extraordinary progress of the past 15 years. (Michael Gerson, 11/30)
The Washington Post: Why Abortion — Not Sexual Misconduct — Is Likely To Decide The Alabama Senate Race
If Republican Roy Moore survives allegations of sexual misconduct (several involving minors) and beats Democrat Doug Jones in Alabama’s Senate election Dec. 12, evangelical single-issue abortion voters will likely deliver the victory. A Pew Research Center study conducted in 2014 showed that the vast majority (58 percent) of adults in Alabama who say that abortion should be “illegal in all or most cases” are churchgoing, white Protestant evangelicals who self-identify as political conservatives and vote or lean Republican. They have long been an important part of the Republican political base — and Moore must turn them out if he hopes to win (three new polls out this week show that after falling behind Jones, Moore is now up 5 to 6 percentage points). (Stacie Taranto, 11/30)
Forbes: Fact-Checking The Left's Dubious Arguments In Favor Of Obamacare's Contraception Mandate
Last month, Bryce Covert, a contributor to The Nation (purportedly "the most widely read weekly journal of liberal/progressive political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis") penned an op-ed piece in the New York Times so riddled with errors that it begged for refutation. Arguing that "birth control fuels economic growth," Ms. Covert offered a ringing defense of efforts by 41 Democrats to reverse Trump administration efforts that he believes "paves the way for virtually any employer to deny its employees access to contraception without a copayment." (Chris Conover, 11/30)
The New York Times: How Doctors Fail Women Who Don’t Want Children
Doctors ought to be women’s greatest allies in the fight for contraceptive and reproductive rights. And yet many of them are failing one subset of women — those, like me, who know they never want to have children. (Alanna Weissman, 11/30)
Stat: New Vaccine Against Typhoid Fever Will Help Fight Antimicrobial Resistance
Until relatively recently, antibiotics were a major part of the solution in the fight against typhoid fever. Their introduction dramatically reduced the death rate from one death in every five cases to one death in every hundred cases. But through the widespread overuse and misuse of antibiotics, the typhoid-causing pathogen has developed resistance to multiple drugs. It is now one of biggest drivers of all drug resistance in Southeast Asia and probably in other regions as well. Not only does this mean that we could see the number of deaths from typhoid fever once again start to rise, but it also has implications for the spread of other drug-resistant pathogens, posing major regional and transcontinental threats. ... The solution to this problem is to prevent typhoid fever in the first place. Vaccination can do that. (Seth Berkley, 11/30)
Stat: Drug-Price Reforms That Limit Incentives For Innovation Could Harm, Not Help
The ongoing furor over the price of prescription pharmaceuticals has become so intense that even an august, establishment group like the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NAS) cannot help but weigh in. ... The panel gets more things right than wrong. However, in failing to emphasize strongly the importance of continuing adequate financial incentives for biomedical innovation and the safeguarding of intellectual property, the report ignores a central tenet of medicine itself — do no harm. Moreover, the call for direct price negotiations by the government on behalf of Medicare Part D for outpatient drugs largely ignores the risk that this scheme will exacerbate rationing through the expansion of restrictive formularies. (John Osborn and David Beier, 11/30)
Stat: If Biden Runs For President, He'll Need To Reboot His Record On Drug Prices
Joe Biden wants to be president, the champion of working families. But there is another side to the former vice president: protector of big pharmaceutical companies, indifferent to the harsh consequences of high drug prices. If Biden wants to pursue a future in politics, he ought to consider a reboot on drug pricing issues. (James Love, 11/30)
The New England Journal Of Medicine: Chasing Seasonal Influenza — The Need For A Universal Influenza Vaccine
As clinicians in the United States prepare for the start of another influenza season, experts have been watching the Southern Hemisphere winter for hints of what might be in store for us in the North. Reports from Australia have caused mounting concern, with record-high numbers of laboratory-confirmed influenza notifications and outbreaks and higher-than-average numbers of hospitalizations and deaths. ... Influenza A (H3N2) viruses predominated, and the preliminary estimate of vaccine effectiveness against influenza A (H3N2) was only 10%. ... As we prepare for a potentially severe influenza season, we must consider whether our current vaccines can be improved and whether longer-term, transformative vaccine approaches are needed to minimize influenza-related morbidity and mortality. (Catharine I. Paules, Sheena G. Sullivan, Kanta Subbarao and Anthony S. Fauci, 11/29)
Des Moines Register: Mental Illness And Violence: Let’s Change The Conversation
Whenever there is a mass shooting or act of violence, people tend to resort to the same, tired talking points: calls for “thoughts and prayers,” pros and cons of gun control, and, when the perpetrator turns out to have a history of mental illness, the need for improved mental health care. ... Those being treated for their mental illnesses are no more prone to violence than the general population. In addition, most people with severe mental illnesses weren’t violent or criminals prior to becoming ill. I propose a change in the way we discuss this. I propose that we describe things more accurately, by saying that sometimes crimes are committed by a person with an untreated or under-treated severe mental illness. (Leslie Carpenter, 11/30)
The New York Times: Happy Anniversary, Heart Transplant
Fifty years ago this Sunday, the first human heart transplant was performed in Cape Town. It was an epoch-making advance in science — and also, perhaps, in human culture. The heart, heavy as it is with symbolism, has always occupied a special place in our collective imagination. Despite our relatively sophisticated biomedical understanding of its function, many people still think of the heart as the seat of affection and courage. (Sandeep Jauhar, 11/30)
