Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Texans Will Continue To Fight Abortion Ban; It's Time To End Religious Exemptions For Vaccines
USA Today: Inside A Texas Abortion Clinic: We Worked Until The Clock Ran Out
The past few days have been perhaps the most devastating for abortion care in nearly 50 years. To see the Supreme Court completely abandon all logic and compassion in favor of disempowering millions of people is the brutal reality we are now facing here in Texas. As the director of clinical services for Whole Woman’s Health, I stood with our patients and clinic staff in the hours, minutes and seconds leading up to Wednesday, Sept. 1. The collective fear, stress and heartbreak we were experiencing was overwhelming. (Marva Sadler, 9/8)
Seattle Times: Remove Religious Exemptions From Childhood Vaccines
With in-person school starting, I have been inundated with well-child checks at the clinic. Previously, this was a laid-back, fun affair, catching up with kids on their summer adventures, ensuring their physical well-being to participate in sports, and identifying any changes in vision or hearing that might impair their ability to learn. This year, however, has been fraught with much greater tension. Not only are there questions and concerns about COVID-19 and safety protocols, but as the arrival of childhood COVID vaccines approach, I am being flooded with vaccine exemption requests. (Daniel Low, 9/7)
Stat: Digital Clinical Trials Can Improve, Accelerate Therapy Development
Biopharmaceutical companies were conducting more than 9,000 clinical trials in the U.S. in March 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted trial operations with broad travel restrictions and concerns about patient safety and investigative site capacity. Many clinical trials that required repeated, in-person visits to a clinic or trial site were delayed or halted. But some researchers forged ahead, combining novel tactics like mailing medications and relying on digital technologies such as transmitting photos of home-based blood pressure readings via text message to conduct trials remotely. (Dawn Anderson, 9/9)
Bloomberg: Use The Opioid Settlements To Fight The Opioid Crisis
Makers and sellers of prescription painkillers will soon begin paying out billions of dollars to settle lawsuits that have accused them of fueling the opioid epidemic. Most recently, more than 40 states have agreed to accept $26 billion from Johnson & Johnson and three big drug distributors, to be paid out over 18 years. It’s a considerable sum — except when measured against more than half a million lives lost this century to opioid overdose, or the tens of billions that state, local and tribal governments spend each year to address the painkiller-heroin-fentanyl scourge. (9/8)
The New York Times: Home Care Keeps Me Alive. It Should Be Fully Funded
Five years ago, I went to sleep each night thinking I was the luckiest and happiest person I knew. I was 32 and had a brilliant wife, an adorable infant son and a fulfilling career organizing for social justice. We owned a house in paradisiacal Santa Barbara, Calif. Then I was given a death sentence. I was told I had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S., a mysterious neurological illness. I asked my doctor how long I could expect to live. He said three to four years. (Ady Barken, 9/8)
