Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Lessons On Keeping Public Health A Priority After COVID And Knowing How Well Vaccines Work
The Washington Post: What Changes After Covid-19? I’m Betting On Everything.
“We’re almost there.” That’s what I’ve been thinking recently, and especially during our eerily sparse Thanksgiving celebrations. Things may be unpleasant now, but if everything goes well, then sometime next summer, we should reach the end of this miserable journey through plagueland. But on closer inspection, the more I realize I don’t really know what “there” will look like. For all the talk of a “return to normal,” large chunks of the old normal are due for a post-covid-19 rethink. And I’m not just talking about movies heading to video or takeout cocktails — though, please, let’s keep the takeout cocktails. The more I think about it, the more I think I’m talking about practically everything. (Megan McArdle, 11/29)
The Wall Street Journal: Deploying Big Data To Determine How Well Vaccines Work
The Food and Drug Administration may approve a Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use within the next few weeks. Within days of that green light, millions of doses will start making their way to patients. The distribution and administration will be logistically complex and difficult. And the study of a vaccine’s safety and efficacy doesn’t end with FDA approval. Researchers will be gathering evidence on how well these products work in the real world. The vaccine is likely to reduce the odds of serious or symptomatic infection. But will vaccinated patients be less likely to be infected at all? Do the vaccines confer, as preliminary evidence suggested, “mucosal immunity,” in which immune cells in the respiratory tract can help reduce the chance of spreading the virus? If so, parts of the country with low spread and high rates of vaccination may be able to ease up on mitigation measures like wearing masks and distancing. (Scott Gottlieb and Mark McClellan, 11/29)
Bloomberg: How AstraZeneca-Oxford Can Recover From Thieir Covid-19 Vaccine Stumble
With the Covid-19 pandemic now resurgent across the globe, it’s a comfort to know that there are several promising vaccine candidates in speedy development. Their success is crucial in fighting the virus and charting a path back to normal. It's important, though, that we are able to see rigorous, clean and transparent trial data, to help gain trust in any vaccine and know that proper protocols are in place. Unfortunately, one of the leading vaccine candidates – from AstraZeneca Plc, working with the University of Oxford — is having a problem in this area. (Sam Fazeli, 11/30)
Stat: Dueling Infections: I Had The Flu And Covid-19 At The Same Time
My painful excursion into the world of dueling infections started on a Tuesday afternoon with a scratchy throat and a mild-yet-annoying cough. I chalked it up to fall in Kentucky, where sunny afternoons in the mid 70s can be followed by freezing temperatures at night. I’m no stranger to respiratory infections, having lived for years with the triple threat of allergies, asthma, and low immunity. (Lauren Hines, 11/27)
The Hill: COVID-19, Masks And The Freedom To Drive Drunk
Does freedom mean the right to refuse to wear a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic? Many Americans think so. It is President Trump’s most important legacy. Here’s one implication that is too little noticed: If that is what freedom means, then we owe drunk drivers an apology. (Andrew Koppelman, 11/29)
CNN: A Leaderless America Slips Deep Into A Grim Pandemic Winter
America is sliding into a winter limbo of alarming spikes in Covid-19 cases and deepening economic pain while an apathetic lame duck White House and a deadlocked Congress provide no political leadership. The darkest holiday season in modern history beckons, yet President Donald Trump and his closest aides, sulking after his election defeat, are doing little to save lives, apart from claiming credit for a vaccine that represents a way out of the nightmare of 2020 but remains months away for most Americans. (Stephen Collinson, 11/30)
CNN: Pressure Mounts On Congress To Help Struggling Americans As Covid-19 Surges
With federal health officials meeting this week to make crucial decisions about who they will recommend to get the coronavirus vaccine first, pressure is mounting on Congress to step back into the governing role that they have abdicated and strike an agreement not only on the expiring aid for struggling Americans, but also the dollars needed by cash-strapped states to ensure the vaccine is equitably and effectively distributed. (Maeve Reston, 11/29)
The Washington Post: Science-Led Policy Will Get Montgomery’s Schools Reopened
Communities facing rising cases of the novel coronavirus are reconsidering their policies on public gatherings. That makes this the perfect time to devise new, evidence-based policy on reopening our schools. Montgomery County leadership has made unreasonable health metrics, not grounded in science or the interests of our children, a prerequisite for hybrid learning: a daily average of fewer than five cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period. This is far more stringent than the state recommendation and approximately four times stricter than what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends. (Margery Smelkinson, 11/27)
CNN: Supreme Court's Scientifically Illiterate Decision Will Cost Lives
Last month, I wrote that Amy Coney Barrett would help to usher in a new post-truth jurisprudence on the Supreme Court. While I had cited her anti-science statements on climate change, her arrival on the court has created a new 5-4 majority against public-health science at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. When it ruled this week against New York state's decision to limit religious gatherings in a few high-incidence parts of New York City, the court proved the dangers of scientifically illiterate judges overturning government decisions that were based on scientific evidence. (Jeffrey D. Sachs, 11/27)
