Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Misinformation Can Be Deadly; Will We Ever Recover From The Covid Pandemic?
Scientific American: Disinformation Is The Real Threat To Democracy And Public Health
Disinformation is the coin of the modern realm. Vaccine denial, climate denial, election denial and war-crime denial have joined the grotesque denial of the Holocaust in the ranks of dishonesties now regularly foisted on the public. We can, however, do something about this crisis of the information age. (Stephan Lewankowsky, Sander Van Der Linden and Andy Norman, 1/30)
The New York Times: Why America Can’t Recover From That First Awful Covid Year
Covid numbers recently climbed again. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention once again reported monthly death tolls in the thousands. Mask mandates are back in New York City’s public medical facilities and nursing homes. The presidential race has kicked into gear and, just as in 2020, the stakes seem existential. It all makes me feel like I’m revisiting a past I never actually left. (Eric Klinenberg, 1/31)
Stat: Eliminate Covid-19 Treatment Patent Protections At America's Peril
The Biden administration may soon double down on one of its gravest mistakes. In 2022, it supported a petition before the World Trade Organization to gut intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines. Now, with the WTO planning to take up the issue again in late February, the administration must decide whether to support a similar proposal that would strip protections from Covid-19 treatments and diagnostics as well. (David Kappos and Andrei Iancu, 1/31)
The New York Times: Who Gets Left Behind When Gene Therapy Cures A Disease?
Gene therapy has seen remarkable and highly publicized success in recent months, from the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of what amounts to cures for sickle cell disease to the news that a boy with congenital deafness could hear for the first time in his life following gene therapy. (Daniela J. Lamas, 1/31)
The Tennessean: Health Care Worker Shortage Led To This Novel Approach To Training
Headlines about the high cost of college and the staggering shortage of health care workers are almost unavoidable. Yet, there is good news on both fronts and it's developing right here in Nashville. (Peggy Valentine, 1/30)
The Star Tribune: Mental Health, And Caregivers, Are In Crisis
We remain in an ongoing mental health crisis. Persisting for years, it's a crisis marked by increasingly complex health needs and exacerbated by inadequate funding to an already fragmented and fragile system. (Todd Archbold, 1/30)
Stat: Commercial Surrogacy Can Be Ethical, Despite Pope’s Claims
Over the past few years, I have watched a wonderful young boy I’ll call Chad grow up smart and full of life. His parents, a gay couple with whom I am friends, used a gestational surrogate, Mary (also a pseudonym), a kind, down-to-earth woman whom I have also met. I have been thinking of him recently when I read Pope Francis’ recent comments about surrogacy. (Robert Klitzman, 1/31)
