Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: New HIV Vaccine Uses mRNA Technology; Ohio HB23 Will Benefit Dementia Patients
Bloomberg: Moderna’s HIV Vaccine Trial Will Advance Many Companies' MRNA Plans
The first volunteers have rolled up their sleeves for a new kind of vaccine against HIV, developed by Moderna and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. Like Moderna’s Covid vaccine, the shot uses mRNA technology to deliver the instructions for key proteins needed to build an immune response. The trial could be a pivotal moment for mRNA. With luck, it will demonstrate how the technology can be deployed in areas of medicine where progress has been slow or nonexistent. Researchers have spent decades working out a possible way to inoculate people against HIV, and mRNA will make it possible to test the theory much faster than expected. (Lisa Jarvis, 2/4)
Cincinnati Enquirer: Pass Bill To Provide Dementia Training For First Responders
Police are responding to a growing number of incidents involving those with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. (Trey Addison, 2/5)
The Baltimore Sun: Nursing Shortage Is A National Health Issue
At the height of the pandemic nurses made headlines as heroes. Nearly two years into the pandemic, nurses make headlines walking out of their jobs and leaving bedside care. Some nurses resign from burnout and fatigue. Others are choosing to become travel nurses, retire early or to simply leave the profession entirely. The nursing shortage is leading hospitals to close units or scale back services, which affects not only high acuity units like the Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Department, but long-term care, labor and delivery, and the operating room.Desperate to keep their units staffed, hospitals are offering upwards of $40,000 sign-on bonuses and paying upwards of $140 an hour out of desperation. (2/6)
Crain's Chicago Business: Threats, Intimidation Against Doctors And Health Workers Must End
The AMA has advocated against the culture of violencein America, including domestic violence, gun violence, racism, police brutality and xenophobia—and violence against physicians and health professionals is no exception. While not a new occurrence, the reported uptick in intimidation, threats and attacks toward people in the medical field has been on the rise for at least the last decade—and has become even more of an alarming phenomenon since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The AMA believes when it comes to healthcare, physicians’ voices should be the loudest in the room—and we make it happen every day. (Dr. Gerald E. Harmon, 2/4)
The CT Mirror: Heavy Metals Contamination Is Affecting Connecticut Communities
Corporate facilities around the United States routinely release toxic chemicals including heavy metals into the surrounding land, air, and water – sometimes without the knowledge of neighboring people. Historic industrial communities are rife with hazardous pollution and sadly, Connecticut has hundreds of potential and known hazardous waste sites that need to be cleaned up, some of the worst air quality in the country, and rivers and lakes that are contaminated with industrial toxins and poisonous mercury. The rates of asthma and cancer are among the highest in the country, and both can be attributed to environmental factors. (Jonathan Sharp, 2/4)
The New York Times: Who Are We Caring For In The I.C.U.?
We gathered as a medical team in front of my patient’s room early one Saturday. She was one of the sickest patients in the intensive care unit. Her lungs were destroyed by cancer and a rare reaction to her chemotherapy, and her condition worsened each day, despite aggressive interventions. It was clear that there was nothing more that we could do. Except to keep her alive until Monday. Struggling to come to terms with this reality, her family had begged us to continue our interventions through the weekend. So we would keep her intubated, deeply sedated and, we hoped, pain-free, performing the rituals of intensive care until the family was ready to say goodbye. (Daniela J. Lamas, 2/6)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The Kids Needlessly Stuck In Hospitals
Across the country, there are children confined to a hospital room — missing school, cut off from peers and unable to even step outside — for no medical reason. There’s simply nowhere else for them to go. The ongoing pandemic has caused mental health crises among the young to skyrocket. An increasing number of these children and adolescents are admitted to an emergency room where they are assessed and stabilized. And then they wait. (Aisha Sultan, 2/6)
USA Today: Fentanyl Deaths: Young Americans' Fear And Depression Drive Overdoses
Even as we still grapple with COVID-19, an epidemic lurking beneath the surface may be disrupting the lives of young Americans even more. Based on a recent analysis of Centers for Disease Control data, fentanyl has become the predominant killer for Americans ages 18 to 45. In the past two years, deaths from fentanyl have significantly exceeded deaths from COVID-19 for this age group. The overdoses cut across gender, race, socioeconomic status and geography. (Henna Hundal, 2/6)
