Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Smelly Sweat Turns Out To Be A Good Thing; CDC Making Headway With Monkeypox
NPR: Stinky Sweat Turns Out To Have A Surprising Health Benefit
Back in college, I had an embarrassing moment that's forever etched into my memory. A girlfriend borrowed my backpack for a weekend trip. And when she came back, she handed me the backpack and said something I'll never forget: "Michaeleen, you must sweat a lot because your backpack stinks. The armstraps smell like onions. Ew." (Michaleen Doucleff, 8/25)
USA Today: US Monkeypox Response Improves As CDC Learns From COVID Mistakes
hanges are finally underway with our national approach to monkeypox, hopefully with more to come. Testing, vaccination and treatment efforts have been seriously delayed, reminiscent of public health shortcomings in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Dr. Marc Siegel, 8/25)
Stat: LGBTQ+ Community Needs Public Health Response To Monkeypox
I assumed I could get vaccinated against monkeypox fairly easily. But it took me weeks to do that. It’s even more difficult for people in my community with less time and fewer resources. What can be done to fix this? (David Stein, 8/26)
Los Angeles Times: I Am California’s Surgeon General And I Have Bipolar Disorder
In 2011 I was a third-year medical student at Harvard Medical School. I was on my psychiatry rotation — and I had a secret. My attending doctors remarked on how well I supported our patients. I was grateful but felt as though my familiarity with and deep empathy for their symptoms and medication side effects were like a neon sign that at any moment could out me. (Devika Bhushan, 8/26)
The Star Tribune: Smart Step To Help The Hard-Of-Hearing
As Americans age, they often run into one of the frustrating realities of the current health care system — the coverage gap when it comes to helping those who are hard of hearing. (8/25)
The New York Times: The Pernicious Myth Of Maternal Instinct
New research on the parental brain makes clear that the idea of maternal instinct as something innate, automatic and distinctly female is a myth, one that has stuck despite the best efforts of feminists to debunk it from the moment it entered public discourse. (Chelsea Conaboy, 8/26)
The CT Mirror: Opinion: Psychiatric Hospitals Don't Aid Recovery. Public Policy Can.
When you go to the hospital for a physical health condition, you don’t expect to spend years or decades of your life in that hospital. If that were the case, we’d say that hospital is failing its patients. So why is that happening in our mental health system? (Jordan Fairchild, 8/26)
