Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: It's Time To Reexamine Covid Quarantine Rules; Fighting Covid With Lifestyle Medicine
The Atlantic: Stop Keeping Healthy Kids Home From School
When America experiences a COVID surge, an increase in safety measures is expected, and wise. When a surge passes, we should decrease those measures. We have repeatedly failed to do so in schools, and children deserve better. In particular, school policies that keep healthy children home need to be relaxed—and soon. (Aaron E. Carroll, 3/1)
Newsweek: For Extra Protection From COVID's Worst Effects, Look To Lifestyle Medicine
One encouraging result of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic is that it has elevated public awareness of the crisis of chronic disease—those underlying conditions so often associated with worse outcomes—and the urgent need to address it. Six in 10 U.S. adults have a chronic disease and 4 in 10 have two or more, many of them lifestyle related, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Fortunately, for those looking to make positive lifestyle behavior changes, the growing field of lifestyle medicine can help them achieve their goals and improve their health. (Beth Frates, 3/1)
The CT Mirror: To Connecticut Parents 'New Normal' Means 'You Are On Your Own'
Since the beginning of the pandemic, parents and caregivers of small children have struggled. We have reached out to each other to share GIFs and Buzzfeed articles for levity and comfort, swapped names of recommended nannies and daycares, and turned to each other when the inevitable has happened: “another quarantine shutdown.” The phrase “the new normal” is like nails on a chalkboard, as we know firsthand the true nature of pandemic parenting: nothing is truly normal. Every day is a labyrinth of change, balancing parenthood and work while identifying and calibrating the relative amount of risk we can take to protect our health and our families. (Sana Shaikh, 3/2)
Also —
Bloomberg: Crispr Might Actually Live Up To Its Immense Hype
From the dawn of Crispr in 2012, medical scientists have recognized the gene-editing tool’s potential to treat, or even cure, genetic diseases. New data from Intellia Therapeutics this week make their hope more realistic than ever. The company’s Crispr therapy was able to significantly lower patients’ levels of a misfolded liver protein and keep them low for months. (Lisa Jarvis, 3/1)
Stat: Rediscovering A Language Of Healing That Doesn't Require 'Cure'
I am a biotech investor and entrepreneur. But more central to my worldview is that I am someone who lives with a rare genetic disease. This has sensitized me to the flippant ways that excited scientists and entrepreneurs toss around notions of “cures,” especially when genomic manipulation is involved. No matter what work is in front of me, I see it through the lens of life with a disease-causing typo in the six billion DNA letters that make up the story of my genome. I have a C (for cytosine) where there should be G (for guanine), an error that sits within a gene that is essential for building the heart’s electrical current. Such a defect can lead to potentially lethal irregularities in my heart’s rhythm. The condition is called long QT syndrome. (Lee D. Cooper, 3/2)
Stat: The Future Of Pharma And Health Care: Small Molecule Drugs
Rightful accolades to Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech for the Covid-19 vaccines they created and developed in less than a year, along with plans to use their technologies to fight other infectious diseases, such as AIDS, and even to treat cancer, have renewed enthusiasm for complex therapies. But I believe that complex therapies, for all their wonders, represent only part of the future of medicine. (Neil Dhawan, 3/1)
Cincinnati Enquirer: Hospitals Are Pocketing Dollars Intended For Charity Care
The 340B Drug Pricing Program was intended to help make health care affordable for uninsured and low-income patients. It has not worked. (Lesley Jones, 3/1)
