Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Lessons On Rushed Vaccines (Remember Polio) And Compromising To Bring Fast Relief
Stat: Covid-19 Vaccine Safety: Lessons From Paul Meier And Polio
Early results of the Covid-19 vaccine trials sponsored by Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca are welcome news. We appreciate the urgency of getting these newly developed coronavirus vaccines out to millions of Americans and potentially billions of people around the world. We also know all too well the tragic story of a rushed polio vaccine. (Diane E. Meier, R. Sean Morrison and Chris Barker, 12/7)
The Wall Street Journal: Who’ll Get The Covid Vaccine First?
A remarkable achievement is at hand: the introduction of two vaccines that have been shown in trials to be highly effective at preventing symptomatic Covid disease. These vaccines will arrive less than a year after the initial sequencing of the virus. For several months the demand will outstrip the supply. Doses will have to be rationed. What’s the most equitable way to allocate this scarce resource? (Scott Gottlieb, 12/6)
The Washington Post: We’ve Worked Hard To Achieve A Covid-19 Compromise Package. We Can’t Afford Inaction.
As the country stared into the abyss of a once-in-a-generation health and economic crisis earlier this year, Congress responded by passing five bills totaling approximately $3 trillion in relief to stave off disaster. Most economists agree that this prompt action kept millions out of poverty and prevented small businesses across the country from shuttering permanently. But nearly nine months since the pandemic began, at least 280,000 Americans have died, funding for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has run dry, and up to 12 million people could lose jobless benefits by year’s end, portending a miserable Christmas season unless Congress once again acts. (U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Susan Collins, 12/6)
Stat: Women Are Often Overlooked In Media Coverage Of Covid-19
As media coverage of Covid-19 continues 24/7, it routinely ignores an important dimension of the crisis: its impact on women. Writers — journalists, as well as opinion and commentary writers — have largely excluded women’s perspectives, their critical expertise, and the mounting evidence about how the pandemic is affecting women from Covid-19-related articles. (Nandini Oomman, Kathryn Conn and Elizabeth O'Connell, 12/5)
The New York Times: It’s Time To Scare People About Covid
Forget that. Mister Rogers-type nice isn’t working in many parts of the country. It’s time to make people scared and uncomfortable. It’s time for some sharp, focused terrifying realism. ... I’m not talking fear-mongering, but showing in a straightforward and graphic way what can happen with the virus. (Elisabeth Rosenthal, 12/6)
The Wall Street Journal: Mask Wars Revisited
It’s to be expected that many who spent four years unproductively obsessing about President Trump now believe his ambivalent mask messaging is responsible for every infection and death in the U.S. The mask issue is not nearly so simple. Mask compliance has actually been pretty good around the U.S. and in Europe regardless of Donald Trump and it didn’t stop the current, worst-yet surge. In frustration, the CDC’s Robert Redfield insisted in midsummer that if everybody wore a mask for several weeks, the virus could be controlled. What he really might have liked to say: “It doesn’t matter how many of us wear masks if the young, who have the least to fear from Covid and are most likely to spread it unwittingly, aren’t wearing them.” ...My advice from July still stands: If you need a mask to participate in an activity, consider not participating in that activity. Much of life and business can proceed normally while keeping 6 feet away from those we love and those we don’t. (Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., 12/4)
The New York Times: Covid-19 Came For The Dakotas
Under normal circumstances, I would have flown to one or both of the Dakotas to write this column, but the whole point is that these aren’t normal circumstances. And I don’t have a death wish. Too much? Probably. But how else to convey the proper timbre of outrage, the right pitch of grief, over what happened there? Deep into the coronavirus pandemic, when there was no doubt about the damage that Covid-19 could do, the Dakotas scaled their morbid heights, propelled by denial and defiance. They surged to the top of national rankings of state residents per capita who were hospitalized with Covid-related symptoms or whose recent deaths were linked to it.As of Friday afternoon, South Dakota led the country in the average daily number of recent Covid-associated deaths per capita, with three for every 100,000 people, according to a New York Times database. North Dakota was second, with 1.5. (Frank Bruni, 12/5)
The Detroit News: We Need More COVID-19 Testing, Not Lockdowns
With COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths climbing, policymakers understandably want a response that protects lives and livelihoods. Many have resorted to an old playbook of blunt mandates, including late-night curfews and travel restrictions as well as school and business closures. And while we wait at home, our leaders have pinned hopes on a vaccine that remains months away from being widely available.Unfortunately, these are public health tools predicated on the assumption that it is impossible to know who has the virus. Therefore, we must treat everyone as infected. (12/6)
Hartford Courant: To Stop The Second Wave Of Coronavirus In Connecticut, We Need To Suspend Indoor Dining
Government has provided some emergency help for small businesses, but in an ideal world, it would continue to support small businesses hurt by the pandemic with funds to keep them afloat until vaccines arrive and it becomes safe again for people to congregate. But in any case, business considerations must be secondary when lives are at stake. Governments should shut indoor eating establishments immediately and keep them closed until they are genuinely safe to reopen. Encourage takeout instead. No business, nor any meal, is worth losing a friend or loved one to COVID-19. (Heide K. Lang and Mark D. Siegel, 12/7)
The Star Tribune: It's Time To Shut Down The Big Ten Football Season
COVID-19 is surging in Big Ten football locker rooms and in the states that the conference’s universities serve. Conference officials should cancel what’s left of the 2020 season not just to protect student-athletes and staff but to prevent team outbreaks from spreading to the broader community. This week, the University of Minnesota announced that 47 Gophers football players and staff have tested positive for the virus since Nov. 19, causing the team to cancel a second consecutive game. The number infected is about 30% of the program’s personnel. This appears to be the biggest Big Ten football outbreak so far, but that could change rapidly without responsible action by conference officials. (12/3)
