Viewpoints: Pros, Cons Of The FDA’s Caution On Vaccines; Free Spirits Need To Tone It Down For A While
Opinion writers weigh in on these pandemic issues and other public health topics, as well.
USA Today:
COVID-19 Vaccine Injects Urgency For The Right Vaccination Distribution
Operation Warp Speed helped drive rapid creation of new vaccines and has been a spectacular success for the Trump administration, which has otherwise monumentally mishandled the coronavirus crisis. Two vaccines developed in record time are on the cusp of emergency approval by the Food and Drug Administration. But Operation Warp Speed is only partially completed. As public health officials say, a vaccine is one thing and a vaccination program is another. The virus cannot be quelled — and, in fact, it is raging across America — until hundreds of millions of doses are manufactured and distributed and most people agree to take them. That's months away. In the meantime, much can still go awry, particularly in this delicate transition period from the Trump to Biden administrations. (12/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
The FDA’s Political Inoculation
The FDA has long been cautious when approving new medicines, which has resulted in delayed treatments for life-threatening diseases like cancer. But its self-protective instinct and desire to compensate for reckless politicians endanger public health. (12/3)
The Washington Post:
The Pandemic’s Lessons Are Clear And Simple. We Must Act Now.
The United States is approaching a grim milestone, recording nearly as many deaths in a single day from the coronavirus pandemic as the 2,977 people who died in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Both the victims of terrorism and the virus were cut down, their lives ended prematurely and beyond their control. But the current threat is not beyond our control. The wave of infections now swamping the country will seed even more sickness and death unless we — the survivors — stand up and stop it. (12/3)
CNN:
How Elvis Presley Can Help Us With A Covid Vaccine
On October 28, 1956, a young Elvis Presley went on "The Ed Sullivan Show." A phenom who had burst onto the national music scene earlier that year with his first album, he played "Hound Dog" and did some slick dance moves... But what really makes that night so memorable is that before his performance, viewers watched Presley get his polio vaccine on television. It made headlines and, critically, also helped convince teens and young adults -- people who thought they weren't at risk -- that they needed a vaccine too in order to help defeat the deadly disease. (David M. Perry, 12/3)
Boston Globe:
Testing Key To Reopening Public Schools
In the blunt words of the nation’s chief infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, “Close the bars and keep the schools open.” Well, the bars in Massachusetts are still closed, a sensible measure to limit transmission of the coronavirus (even though casino gambling and indoor dining persist). But hundreds of schools also remain closed, which means hundreds of thousands of youngsters are learning remotely. That in turn impacts the work lives of their parents. Fauci’s point, of course, was that indefinite remote learning isn’t healthy, especially for young children, for children with special needs, and for their pandemic-exhausted parents. (12/4)
Los Angeles Times:
Learning From The Pandemic About What Works On Homelessness
Sometimes the answer to a complex problem lies right in front of our eyes. Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring, California was forced to find a way to get people living on the street into shelter as quickly as possible. The successful strategy it employed shows how we can combine urgency with greater resources to deal with our growing homelessness crisis in a post-pandemic world. Back in April, Gov. Gavin Newsom launched Project Roomkey with $100 million in state funding to move people indoors and prevent what public health experts feared would be the rapid spread of COVID-19 through homeless camps. State and county negotiators teamed up to lease thousands of hotel rooms and turn them into temporary shelter. (Darrell Steinberg, 12/4)
Stat:
How To Ethically And Practically Extend Health Care To All
The long-standing debate over whether health care is a right or a privilege seems particularly heartless during a global pandemic. Guided in part by aftereffects of the pandemic, we believe there is a straightforward way to equitably resolve this contentious issue. (Charles E. Binkley and Richard Levy, 12/3)
Stat:
Misguided Federal Regulations Are Likely To Cause More Pain In People Already Living With It
Hidden in the shadows of the Covid-19 pandemic is the U.S.’s drug epidemic, which is getting worse. One group that is paying the price for it, but shouldn’t be, are people who live with chronic pain conditions. (Vanila Singh, 12/2)
Boston Globe:
2020′S Other Epidemic: Violence Against The Trans Community
It took an Academy Award-nominated actor coming out as transgender to garner national attention for the epidemic of violence against the trans community. During its story about Elliot Page, acclaimed for his performance in the film “Juno” and currently starring in “The Umbrella Academy” on Netflix, “NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt“ reported that at least 40 trans and gender nonconforming people, most of them Black and Latinx women, have been murdered in the United States and Puerto Rico this year. That breaks 2017′s record of 31. “The discrimination toward trans people is rife, insidious, and cruel, resulting in horrific consequences,” Page said in a tweet. “To the political leaders who work to criminalize trans health care and deny our right to exist and to all of those with a massive platform who continue to spew hostility toward the trans community: you have blood on your hands.” (Renee Graham, 12/4)
