Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Russia's Plague Scare And A Return To Secrecy; Florida's Dengue Outbreak Signals A Growing Threat
The Atlantic: Russia Needs To Tell The Truth About A Plague Death
After an apparent lab accident in Siberia, Moscow is reverting to its old Soviet ways. (Tom Nichols, 10/6)
Bloomberg: Florida’s Dengue Fever Outbreak Is A National Warning
For a state whose government officially doesn’t believe climate change is real, Florida remains our nation’s busiest climate-change laboratory. (Mark Gongloff, 10/7)
Stat: Active Surveillance For Prostate Cancer Doesn’t Mean It’s ‘Untreated’
When my term life insurance policy expired in 2013 and I had to get a new one, I thought my widow-maker heart attack in 2005 might be a sticking point. Instead, eight insurers turned me down because they said I had “untreated cancer.” They were referring to the tiny amount of prostate cancer found three years earlier. (Howard Wolinsky, 10/7)
Stat: Taxpayers Shouldn’t Pay For An Ineffective Multi-Cancer Screening Test
There must be some mistake. A company studies its cancer blood test in a randomized trial of 140,000 people using a suboptimal surrogate endpoint, fails to meet that endpoint, yet is recommended for approval by a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel. And because of the Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act passed earlier this year, the company appears to be on track to have taxpayers foot the bill. (H. Gilbert Welch, 10/6)
