Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Rural Health Care Can Be Saved By Taking These Steps; Who Should Be Trusted For Vaccine Advice?
Modern Healthcare: Rural Healthcare Is On Life Support. Here's How It Could Thrive
For millions of people, a rural ZIP code is more than just an address — it’s a powerful predictor of health outcomes. It can mean a shorter life expectancy. It can mean longer travel times to see a doctor — if one is available at all. And, critically, it can determine whether the nearest hospital is among the more than 400 currently at risk of closure, according to a study by The Chartis Center for Rural Health. (Gene Woods, 9/18)
Stat: The Coming Fragmentation Of Vaccination Social Order
America’s vaccine policies are facing their most serious crisis in decades. Florida plans to eliminate school vaccine mandates, making it the first state to abandon policies that have anchored America’s immunization governance since the 1960s. Meanwhile, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has purged the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee and thrown national health institutions into disarray. (Mark C. Navin and Katie Attwell, 9/18)
The New York Times: Kennedy's Vaccine Panel Is A Calamity
On Thursday, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel voted to recommend limiting the combination measles, mumps, rubella, varicella vaccine, and on Friday the panel will vote on Covid vaccine recommendations, as well as whether or not to continue recommending the hepatitis B vaccine for infants within 24 hours of birth. (Paul A. Offit and David Wallace-Wells, 9/19)
Stat: Former CDC Director: Here’s The Evidence For Kids' Covid Vaccines
I was the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director who approved the ACIP recommendations for children to receive Covid-19 vaccines in 2021 (ages 5-17) and 2022 (6 months and older). These recommendations were made after public review of surveillance data, the trial data, and the burden of Covid-19 in U.S. children. (Rochelle Walensky, 9/19)
Stat: Why Pharma Companies Are Suddenly Pausing Investment In The U.K.
For decades the U.K. has punched above its weight in life sciences. I would wager that as many as a quarter of medicines approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the past decade can trace their origins back to the U.K., thanks to some of the best basic science in the world (more than 30 Nobel laureates and over 10% of life science publications worldwide, ranking third globally), a vibrant investment ecosystem, and close ties to international pharmaceutical companies with significant R&D bases in the U.K. (David Grainger, 9/19)
