Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Lessons From The Dutch On Affordable Health Care; Vaccine Research In America Is In Crisis
Undark: What The Dutch Can Teach Us About Paying For Health Care
With cuts to Obamacare looming, the U.S. could look to the Netherlands for a model of a sustainable multi-payer system. (Joshua Cohen, 2/18)
Stat: The Vaccine Industry Is Not The Enemy
On Dec. 30, 2020, I took the first of two flights to Boston, double-masked and anxious, to roll up my sleeve at Moderna’s manufacturing site just outside the city. A year earlier, I hadn’t even known the company existed. Now, I was an executive there, part of a team responding to a global catastrophe. (Richard Hughes IV, 2/18)
Bloomberg: RFK Jr.’s First Year At HHS Has Devastated Public Health
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a lot of promises on his way to becoming health secretary. He pledged to Make America Healthy Again, of course, and to restore trust in embattled health agencies. And he said he wouldn’t “take away anybody’s vaccines.” (Lisa Jarvis, 2/18)
Stat: Results From TSH Tests Vary In Different Brands Of Lab Machines
In the midst of a health crisis a few years ago, doctors repeatedly checked my thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), revealing an odd pattern: My test results were consistently much higher when tested at the local hospital than they were when tested at my outpatient doctor’s office. (Samantha Bonsack, 2/18)
