Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: How Worried Should We Be About Omicron?; Unintended Effects Of Covid Lockdown For Some Women
Bloomberg: Omicron Is Unavoidable But It's Not Time To Give In To Covid Panic
Omicron has invited pandemic uncertainty back into our lives, sending markets in all sorts of directions and leading to a tightening of restrictions in nations around the world. As of Friday, the variant has been found in more than 30 places. (Lara Williams, 12/6)
Stat: Some Covid-19 Policies Fuel Violence Against Women And Girls
The emergence of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 with its many mutations has rightly sparked global concern. Another Covid-related issue that should also spark concern, but continues to fly under the radar, is the endemic violence directed toward women and girls around the world that has been heightened by responses to the pandemic. On a recent visit to a tribal village in South India, I met with children, elders, and teachers, who told me how their lives have been affected by Covid-19. The implementation of crucial, but often blunt, public health measures such as stay-at-home policies and the disruption of key services like schools and health facilities have significantly eroded social well-being, isolation, income, and educational attainment. They have also increased violence against many women and girls. (Soumya Swaminathan, 12/6)
Newsweek: A Saner, Freer Market For Health Care Could Incentivize Vaccines
Working as a lawyer in the Trump administration, I was part of the team that faced a seemingly insurmountable challenge: how do you stop an uncontrollable virus? As with any new threat, the initial tools were limited, but we knew American ingenuity was not. We focused on a few possible solutions. One was contact tracing. Before a vaccine or a cure, identifying cases was arguably the best way to control outbreaks. But Americans are too freedom-loving (and rightly so) to allow their locations and COVID status to be constantly tracked. Government monitoring was never the solution. (May Davis, 12/6)
The New York Times: Omicron Is Another Waiting Game For Parents
I try to eke out a little bit of positivity from the news most weeks, but this week has been rough. The successive waves of disappointing or downright horrifying information have been difficult to absorb: the acceleration toward the dismantling of reproductive rights after oral argument in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which could have a life-threatening impact on women experiencing risky pregnancies; another fatal school shooting, this one in Michigan; and the emergence of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. (Jessica Grose, 12/4)
