Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Covid-Positive Health Care Providers Must Stay On The Job; What Is Acceptable In This Stage Of Covid?
Los Angeles Times: When An Asymptomatic, COVID-Positive Doctor Is Still Treating Patients, We're Losing A War
I’ve been dodging COVID since March 2020. Back then, I would have been appalled at having asymptomatic doctors and nurses infected with COVID treating patients, which state officials now say is permissible. Now I see this as a necessity. We’re losing this war. (Mark Morocco, 1/15)
The Atlantic: The COVID-Risk Social Contract Is Under Negotiation
“Three people walk into a bar …” What once launched a thousand jokes now sends a frisson of anxiety. What’s their vaccination status? Are they masked? Did they test before going out? (Jonathan Wolff, 1/17)
Bloomberg: What Will It Take To Vaccinate The World?
You’re a veteran advocate for global health, vaccines and tropical-disease control, and served as a U.S. science envoy during the Obama administration. You’ve now developed a low-cost Covid-19 vaccine, Corbevax, using a tried-and-tested method. It’s a recombinant protein vaccine, which means it should be easy to scale. The technology will be available for anyone to reproduce. How do you expect it to contribute to global vaccination efforts? (Clara Ferreira Marques, 1/17)
The Washington Post: After A Supreme Court Setback, There Are Other Ways To Pursue Vaccine Mandates
The Supreme Court’s ruling that President Biden’s vaccine mandate was an overreach, beyond the powers given to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration by Congress, should be an impetus for others who do have the authority to push ahead with vaccine mandates. Congress ought to explicitly authorize federal vaccine mandates. It’s now clear, from a year’s experience, that vaccines prevent serious disease, and mandates work to get more people vaccinated. (1/16)
NBC News: Covid Test Anxiety Has Upped The Pandemic Misery, And Resurfaced My Infertility Trauma
I kept staring at the single pink line on the test and squinting. Did I see another line? Please, let there be another line! I’d been waiting for a second line forever, for the indication that I finally had a positive test. Oh, no, wait. Hold on a minute, I had to remind myself. Although the test looked exactly the same with its blue and pink lines — one for negative and two for positive — and I was still waiting with apprehension for a second line to show up, this was not a pregnancy test. (Amy Klein, 1/15)
The New York Times: The C.D.C. And F.D.A. Can Work Better Together
At this difficult moment of the pandemic, a great deal of distress is the result of a basic disconnect. Even as Americans hear frightening news about record numbers of infections and hospitalizations, there is growing confusion about testing, booster doses and medications — the very tools we use to protect ourselves from Covid-19. (Joshua M. Sharfstein, 1/18)
Chicago Tribune: So Many Want To Predict COVID-19′S Trajectory. But The Virus Has Refused To Cooperate
When it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic, it now seems that everybody is an expert, at least judging by the daily pronouncements from reporters, columnists, presidents, government officials, union officials, podcast hosts, quarterbacks, point guards, entertainers, Supreme Court justices, conspiracy theorists and anyone with a Twitter account. A bewildered public is carpet-bombed daily with statistics, predictions, mandates and advice — all delivered with supreme confidence. (Cory Franklin and Robert A. Weinstein, 1/14)
Newsweek: Unreliable COVID Tests Put Both Us And Science At Risk
We already know that when it comes to COVID testing, the PCR test is not perfectly reliable, reporting false positives as well as false negatives. We also know that antigen testing is not entirely accurate either, with false negatives possible. But so far the antigen test has been considered the least likely to lead to a false positive. (Elizabeth Stone, 1/14)
