Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Gun Violence Through The Eyes Of A Critical-Care Doctor; Hidden Amidst The Statistics, Children Are Healthier
The Washington Post: I’m A Doctor In A Critical-Care Unit. Here’s What Gun Violence Looks Like To Me.
The critical care team making rounds — my team for today — stops abruptly in front of the next patient room, and I hear my co-resident present the story: The 18-year-old patient suffered a gunshot wound to the face. The circumstances of the shooting aren’t clear, but we heard it had something to do with “gang violence.” And we continue listening to the presentation: an update on any changes in the patient’s status that happened overnight, his vital signs over the past 24 hours, the input of different specialists, and, finally, the treatment plan for the day. (Milly Turakhia, 6/20)
Modern Healthcare: Reinstate The Assault Weapons Ban
It's important that we spend more government funds on behavioral health, emergency preparedness and anti-terror surveillance, of course. But as the FBI's multiple investigations of Mateen revealed, no surveillance program can ever catch someone acting on their own when their life trajectory has taken him or her to a place where they have lost contact with what it means to be human. What we can do—what we must do—is make it more difficult for someone in the midst of their descent into madness to make innocent civilians pay with their lives. That's why at a minimum, Congress—and anyone running for Congress—should declare that we have a public health emergency that requires an immediate ban on the manufacture, sale and resale of semi-automatic weapons to civilians. (Merrill Goozner, 6/18)
The New York Times: Good News Hidden In The Data: Today’s Children Are Healthier
For the first time in over a decade, the death rate in the United States is getting worse, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported. The news is the latest in a string of headlines about the shortening lives of Americans, particularly the white middle-aged. “Disparity in Life Spans of the Rich and the Poor Is Growing.” “White Americans Are Dying Younger as Drug and Alcohol Abuse Rises.” “U.S. Suicide Rate Surges to a 30-Year High.” But there are happier trends that have received a lot less attention: The health of American children is improving sharply, and the health gap between the rich and the poor among children and young adults is shrinking. The research suggests that future generations of Americans may not reach old age with the same ailments and inequalities as today’s older Americans. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 6/17)
The Kansas City Star: Precautions Needed Against Antibiotic Resistant Superbug In America
The so-called superbug recently discovered for the first time in a woman in Pennsylvania hasn’t reached the Midwest, but the fact that the bacteria is resistant to antibiotics of last resort is a super-cause for concern. The E. coli bacteria possessed the gene known as mcr-1, which makes it resistant to antibiotic colistin, a drug used to fight dangerous types of superbugs that can withstand other antibiotics. (6/19)
The Washington Post: Don’t Let Zika Stop The Olympics
An expert panel convened by the World Health Organization just declared that there is no scientific basis for canceling, postponing or moving the 28th Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August or the Paralympics in September because of the Zika outbreak. While many of us experts have expressed concerns about how WHO handled Ebola and other outbreaks, this time WHO got it right. (Ashish K. Jha, 6/19)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Congress Passes A Not-Very-Good Toxic Chemical Bill
Just when you’re fed up with the U.S. Congress (approval rating: 11 percent) comes word that it has passed and sent to the president an overhaul of the 1976 Toxic Chemicals and Substances Act, generally regarded as the weakest environmental law on the books. And it only took 10 years. The Environmental Protection Agency is now free to begin testing 64,000 household chemicals to determine how dangerous some of them are. But lest the EPA get carried away with its new powers, the new law restricts the agency to testing only 20 chemicals at a time, with a maximum testing period of seven years. (6/19)
The Conversation: Chemical Regulation Bill Clears Congress, But Will It Protect The Public?
In a major overhaul of U.S. regulation of toxic chemicals, Congress last week passed the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, the largest piece of environmental legislation passed in the United States since 1990. ... The bill amends the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which has been called the “lapdog” of American environmental law because of its weak controls on hazardous chemicals. The new bill, named after the late New Jersey senator who championed the legislation, passed on a bipartisan basis with support from the chemical industry. (Noah M. Sachs, 6/16)
Pioneer Press: St. Paul’s Sick-Leave Pay Ordinance Is Overreach
It’s time, St. Paul, to weigh in at a pivotal point in the months-long drive toward a city-government mandate that would require employers to give workers paid leave for their own health and safety needs or those of family members. We consider it a bad idea, overreach by local government and a threat to jobs and job growth in the capital city. (6/19)
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Breast-Feeding Is Not For Everyone
While the breast-feeding initiation rates cited are spot-on (78 percent of mothers initiating breast-feeding), the hand-wringing about their inadequacy is not. These statistics do not take into account the deeply personal reasons the remaining 22 percent do not breast-feed from birth - women who have undergone mastectomies, women on certain contraindicated or borderline medications, and women who have histories of sexual trauma, to name a few. (Suzanne Barston, 6/19)
ProPublica: A Father’s War, A Son’s Toxic Inheritance
During the war, before I was born, Al had sprayed Agent Orange along riverbanks in Vietnam, often soaking his uniform in the herbicide. The exposure, he wrote, had caused him serious health problems, including a neurological disorder, and he believed it also might have harmed me. (Stephen M. Katz, 6/17)
The Cleveland Plain Dealer: Politicians Shouldn't Be The Ones Pushing Medical Marijuana
Medical marijuana is a smokin' hot issue in Ohio. Last year voters rejected Issue 3, a proposed constitutional amendment that would have legalized marijuana, as the measure was perceived by voters to be a thinly veiled attempt to enrich a small group of investors, who were also bankrolling the ballot initiative. (Michael Kirsch, 6/19)
The Washington Post: Philadelphia’s Sweet Deal To Discourage Sugar Consumption
The Coca-Cola Co. used to claim things go better with Coke. On Thursday, the Philadelphia City Council decided that’s particularly true of taxes. The city’s new 1.5-cents-per-ounce surcharge on sodas and other sweetened drinks is a sensible step toward discouraging sugar consumption, if only a first step. With the passage of its soda tax, Philadelphia will start charging citizens extra for buying waistline-widening beverages. Philadelphia’s policy may have won enactment because, unlike many failed proposals across the country, it channels revenue into a specific and popular cause: universal prekindergarten. Berkeley, Calif., which has a similar soda surcharge, also earmarks the money, in its case to community gardens and health programs. (6/19)
