Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Ideas To Fix The ER Doctor Shortage; Why Haven't We Seen The Wuhan Market Covid Origin Data?
Scientific American: Fewer Doctors Are Choosing To Go Into Emergency Medicine
Emergency medicine physicians and the nurses who work with us are suffering from burnout, depression, and deep moral injury more than ever before. When people come to us, some on the worst day of their lives, we cannot take care of them in the way that we have been trained to do. Match Day tells us that medical students are realizing this. (Janice Blanchard, 3/26)
The Washington Post: The Data On Covid's Origins From The Wuhan Market Must Be Made Public
A new analysis by a team of international experts adds to evidence suggesting that the pandemic began when animals at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, spread the coronavirus to people. But there’s a problem: Other researchers can’t scrutinize the genetic sequences it’s based on. (Amy Maxmen, 3/25)
The New York Times: We Have Cutting-Edge Science To Make Vaccines. But Will Everyone Benefit?
If anything about the pandemic is remembered as positive, it will be how science was applied to rapidly produce medical countermeasures. (Barney Graham, 3/26)
Bloomberg: Why Medicaid Expansion Will Overcome Florida Politics
North Carolina’s Republican-led legislature last week approved the expansion of Medicaid to more low-income adults, leaving only 10 states that continue to reject the federal government’s incentives under the Affordable Care Act. (Jonathan Bernstein, 3/26)
Los Angeles Times: Why Do Doctors Assume Black Women's Pain Is Normal?
When I was pregnant with my second child, the pain in my pelvis was extraordinary. “It’s normal,” my white obstetrician said. I told her I had never felt such pain. She instructed me to walk with small steps, “like a geisha.” (Tiphanie Yanique, 3/26)
The Atlantic: In The Age Of Ozempic, What's The Point Of Working Out?
Fitness can be a complicated thing. For some, the motivation is health, and for others it’s pure enjoyment of the sport or physical activity. But for many—especially the Gen Xers among us, who, if we weren’t given an eating disorder by our Boomer moms, picked one up at college or from our Cosmopolitan and Vogue magazines—the real point is weight loss. Yes, exercise has health benefits, but those are side effects of the aesthetic goal. ( Xochitl Gonzalez, 3/25)
Dallas Morning News: Study Transgender Care; Don’t Ban It
The Texas Senate is considering a bill that would ban all gender-affirming care for minors in the state. While we have concerns about the nature of such care, this law goes too far. What Texas needs, instead, is a review of gender clinic practices and their effectiveness. (3/27)
