Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Poor Information On Gun Violence Undermines Public Safety Research; Smart Steps Begin On Reducing Some Drug Prices
Bloomberg: The U.S. Needs Better Data On Gun Violence
Are firearms injuries rising, falling or holding steady in the U.S.? It’s hard to tell, and that’s an enormous obstacle to understanding and preventing them.There is no reliable national database for firearm injuries. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collect data from multiple sources. But they rely significantly on a system designed to monitor injuries from consumer products, using data from surveys of a relatively small sample of hospitals. (10/25)
Los Angeles Times: The Trump Administration Takes On Drug Prices
In his most aggressive response to date to high prescription drug prices, President Trump wants Medicare to obtain better deals by negotiating with pharmaceutical companies — just not directly. The proposal would affect only a limited number of drugs and would come with some potentially harmful side effects, but it’s a promising start. (10/26)
The New York Times: Why Sex Is Not Binary
Two sexes have never been enough to describe human variety. Not in biblical times and not now. Before we knew much about biology, we made social rules to administer sexual diversity. The ancient Jewish rabbinical code known as the Tosefta, for example, sometimes treated people who had male and female parts (such as testes and a vagina) as women — they could not inherit property or serve as priests; at other times, as men — forbidding them from shaving or being secluded with women. More brutally, the Romans, seeing people of mixed sex as a bad omen, might kill a person whose body and mind did not conform to a binary sexual classification. (Anne Fausto-Sterling, 10/25)
The Washington Post: Caitlyn Jenner: I Thought Trump Would Help Trans People. I Was Wrong.
These past two years under President Trump have given me the opportunity to reflect on a lot of topics that have come up in the LGBTQ community and in our nation. Some of these are thorny issues still worth discussing; many should have been settled long ago. As I’ve watched and pondered, my outlook has changed significantly from what it was during my highly publicized and glamorized early Caitlyn days, when my life as an out trans woman was just beginning. (Caitlyn Jenner, 10/25)
Los Angeles Times: Take It From A Genetic Counselor: 23andMe's Health Reports Are Dangerously Incomplete
Not only does 23andMe not provide counseling, their results are incomplete. For instance, they report only on BRCA1 and BRCA2 and restrict their findings to the three mutations common among Jewish women. (They do explain this in their printed materials.)While the most common three mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are typically found in women of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, there are more than 1,000 other mutations that can be just as deadly. Women with Ashkenazi heritage can also have a mutation not associated with being Ashkenazi.There are other genes that can have mutations that substantially increase one’s risk for breast cancer, including PALB2, CHEK2, PTEN, CDH1, TP53 and STK11. 23andMe doesn’t provide test results for any of these mutations. (Sarah C. Hopkins, 10/26)
JAMA: Addressing Intimate Partner Violence And Abuse Of Older Or Vulnerable Adults In The Health Care Setting—Beyond Screening
Intimate partner violence (IPV) (defined as physical and sexual violence, emotional abuse, and stalking) and abuse of older or vulnerable adults are common in the United States and globally. Recent estimates of prevalence in the United States from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, a nationally representative random-digit-dial telephone survey, indicate that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men have experienced contact sexual violence, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner resulting in consequences such as injury, need for medical care, or posttraumatic stress symptoms. The prevalence of elder abuse varies depending on the population and ascertainment methods, but 1 national survey reports a 10% past year prevalence for abuse or neglect. (Elizabeth Miller, Scott R. Beach and Rebecca C. Thurston, 10/23)
Boston Globe: Vote Yes On Question 1 For Better Patient Care
Nurses put Question 1 on the ballot to protect patients. The truth about Question 1 is that it ensures when your loved one hits the call button, there will be a nurse ready to respond when they are most critically needed. (Donna Kelly-Williams and Judith Shindul-Rothschild, 10/25)
San Francisco Chronicle: A California Prison Whistle Blower Exposes The State’s Weakness On Mental Health Care
The top psychiatrist in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has accused his prison bosses of misleading the federal court — and opposing lawyers — in a long-running inmate lawsuit about appropriate levels of psychiatric treatment. The judge is weighing whether she should make the psychiatrist’s whistle-blower report public. (10/25)
