Viewpoints: Global Students Could Alleviate US Doctor Shortage; RFK Jr. Has Bungled Our Bird Flu Response
Opinion writers discuss the following public health issues.
Stat:
America Is Running Out Of Doctors. Congress Must Step Up
When the Trump administration put a pause on student visa interviews recently, it hit a perhaps surprising group: thousands of J-1 physician visa holders who are supposed to start residency on July 1. Now, they are unsure what their future will hold. The hospitals where they are supposed to work are scrambling, too. The U.S. can’t afford to lose these doctors — the country is already running out of physicians. (Tom Price, 6/4)
The Boston Globe:
Canceling Moderna's Bird Flu Contract Could Be Robert Kennedy's Most Reckless Act Yet
Of all the misguided decisions Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made as secretary of Health and Human Services, canceling Moderna’s contract to develop a bird flu vaccine may be the most dangerous yet. (Ashish K. Jha, 6/3)
Stat:
RFK Jr.'s Stance On Covid Vaccines For Pregnant Women Is Profoundly Unethical
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy’s proposal to end the government’s existing Covid vaccine recommendation for healthy pregnant women, if enacted, will be a major setback to decades’ worth of efforts to advance the health of pregnant people and their babies. It also profoundly unethical. (Ruth R. Faden, 6/3)
Stat:
HHS Secretary Kennedy Told Us Not To Listen To Him. We Agree
During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy promised that he would not interfere with established immunization schedules. Yet in a matter of days, he has lurched from refusing to recommend vaccinating against measles to, without evidence, attempting to alter the national vaccine schedule for pregnant women, babies, and children. These are the very parts of the U.S. population whose health and well-being are perhaps uppermost in the mind of public health and for whom evidence-based decision-making is of the utmost policy importance. (Sara Rosenbaum and Richard Hughes IV, 6/4)
Bloomberg:
No Job Says ‘New York’ Like Home Health-Care Aide
The dividing line between home health care and other home care for the elderly and disabled isn’t always clear, and if you look closely at the above chart you can see that the Bureau of Labor Statistics suddenly reclassified about 80,000 New York jobs in April from home health-care services to services for the elderly and persons with disabilities. (Justin Fox, 6/3)
Chicago Tribune:
Remembering Dr Timothy R.B. Johnson, A Giant In Global Women’s Health
Dr Timothy R.B. Johnson, who passed away on May 27, was a giant in global health and women’s sexual and reproductive health, and a poster child for impassioned and impactful mentorship. Tim was a true force multiplier, training hundreds of future obstetricians and gynecologists in the United Sates, and then forging truly lasting paths first to Ghana, and then our native Ethiopia, bringing his wisdom, vision and excellence to communities where maternal mortality rates were shockingly high. (Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Senait Fisseha, 6/4)
