Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Health Implications Unknown After Train Derailment; Adoption Is Not An Abortion Substitute
The New York Times: I Grew Up Near A Toxic Disaster. I Have A Warning For East Palestine
It’s impossible to know what environmental and health challenges the residents of East Palestine, Ohio, will face in the years to come, but my worry is that they will know what I experienced from childhood onward: unease, loved ones getting sick and a fear of natural landscapes that should be local treasures. (Vanessa Ogle, 3/3)
Stat: Adoption Is Not A Simple Or Easy Alternative To Abortion
"But aren’t you grateful to be alive”? That’s a question adoptees like me are often asked when we speak out against the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Like other adoptees, I hesitate to answer, feeling the pressure to respond as we’ve been trained to by society, “Yes, I’m grateful, so very grateful.” Adding anything else opens the door to the complexities of adoption that few people are willing to hear: that adoption isn’t a happy ending — it’s one family being torn apart to piece together another. And that adoptees are being used as pawns against reproductive rights while their own rights are denied. (Laura Goetz, 3/3)
Stat: How Physician Wellness Programs Keep Doctors Captive
Wellness programs don’t work — at least, not in the way that increases actual physician wellness. What they do instead is keep physicians indentured to the system that burns them out in the first place. (Though my focus in this essay is on physicians, my concerns about wellness programs also apply to nurses and other health care workers.) (Mark G. Shrime, 3/3)
Also —
Bloomberg: Covid-19 Lab Leak Theory Draws Attention To Research Security Needs
News that the US Department of Energy now believes that the virus that causes Covid-19 escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, won’t resolve the ill-tempered debate over how a pandemic that has killed nearly 7 million people began. But it should spur policymakers and scientists to stop politicizing the issue and get serious about preventing another catastrophe. (3/2)
The Washington Post: The Investigation Into Covid’s Origins Must Continue
Americans were surprised to learn this week that the U.S. Energy Department has changed its initial assessment on the origins of the virus that sparked the covid pandemic. The department’s analysts now believe that a lab-related accident was most likely, albeit with “low confidence.” (Josh Rogin, 3/3)
The Washington Post: What Does It Mean To Hold China ‘Accountable’ For Covid?
My column this week focused on the need to shift from single-mindedly pursuing covid-19’s origins to preventing the next pandemic, whether it is caused by laboratory accidents or animal-to-human spillover. I believe our energy is better spent shoring up future defenses than finger-pointing over the past. (Leana S. Wen, 3/2)
