Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Stop Harming Development Of Children, Reunite Them With Their Parents; Breast-Feeding Saves Lives, So Why Cripple It?
San Jose Mercury News: Separating Children From Parents Harms Development
If a child experiences an adverse event the young brain can recover and is remarkably resilient in large part due to the social-emotional buffering provided by a strong, loving parent relationship. But when you fracture that relationship by separating a parent and their child, the resiliency of the young brain erodes and if pro-longed, permanently changes the brain architecture. (Jaime Peterson, 7/10)
USA Today: End The Cruelty And Reunite Migrant Families ASAP
It turns out that the number of separated children is closer to 3,000 than the 2,000 originally cited by administration officials. Among them are about 100 under the age of 5. In dozens of those cases, parents have been deported minus their children, or HHS has apparently lost track of them. The results are abominations, like what happened Friday when a 1-year-old boy, sipping from a bottle of milk and playing with a blue ball, appeared as an immigration defendant before a judge in Phoenix. The child's father had been shipped off to Honduras. Small wonder that two out of three Americans abhor what Trump has done with these children. (7/9)
WBUR: A Happy Ending For A Homeless Refugee Mother Of 8 Facing Cancer
In 2015, the American Journal of Preventative Medicine published a study demonstrating that women experiencing homelessness in Massachusetts have a rate of cervical cancer diagnosis that is 4.4 times higher than the general population, and a rate of death from cervical cancer that is six times higher. Given that homeless women are much more likely to die of this potentially preventable cancer, screening for cervical cancer is an urgent priority for our patients. (Aura Obando, 7/10)
The Hill: Don't Listen To Trump, Poverty Is Exactly The Situation Where Breastfeeding May Be Ideal
Truth be told, there has never been a public health concern, in any nation, resulting from an infant being denied formula as is being suggested in the context of marketing regulations. As pediatricians and neonatologists, the crisis we contend with is not a denial of formula. It is a lack of understanding of the remarkable ease by which breastfeeding is derailed in the earliest phase of initiation and, subsequently, the chances of success are terminally interrupted. (Nana Matoba and Daniel Robinson, 7/10)
Stat: You Can't Tell A Book By Its Cover — Or A Disease By Drake's Race
Race associations are as common in medical training, from lectures and prep books to practice tests and board exams, as they are unquestioned. An analysis of a licensing exam question bank found that the number one disease associated with white patients is cystic fibrosis. Black patients are most commonly coupled with sickle cell and sarcoidosis. These ties are so recognizable they’ve been turned into jokes. Such racial associations are simple — too simple. They aren’t helping students learn and they might be harming patients. It’s hard to think outside the box when everything you’ve been taught fits inside it. The trouble is that no genetic mutation or disease is specific to race. (Jennifer W. Tsai, 7/11)
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Primary Care Doctors Deserve More Respect. Their Patients' Health Depends On It
As insurance reimbursement for primary care has been rapidly outrun by reimbursement for specialists, it is difficult to convince the best and brightest to go into primary care. Today’s primary care physicians are expected to see an unrealistic number of patients every day, and usually can’t spend enough time with each. (Paula Stillman, 7/10)
The Washington Post: The New Face Of Medical Advice: The Online Pregnancy Forum
Last September, three months pregnant with my first child, I began to feel shooting pains in my abdomen. I surmised that this was round ligament pain, a typical pregnancy symptom that occurs as the uterus expands. Later that night, wondering when I could expect the pain to subside, I Googled “round ligament pain how long.” The top results were from pregnancy message boards, where women asked (and answered) a flurry of questions: Is it normal to have round ligament pain all day? Could it feel like a constant ache instead of sharp pangs? Can one experience it as early as the first trimester? I clicked on post after post, reading about the experiences of dozens of women, and learned that the pain would probably subside by the third trimester. (Anna Wexler, 7/10)
Stat: Gene-Drive Technology Must Be Developed In A Safe, Ethical Way
The best way to ensure that gene-drive technology is developed safely is to discuss it openly — in laboratories, within governments, and in public. Engaging nonprofit organizations like the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health contributes to safeguarding public interest in this emerging disease-fighting tool. With so many people suffering from malaria every year, we cannot afford to leave this potential new tool unexplored. But we must do it the right way. (Anthony A. James, 7/10)
