Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Unacceptable Rate Of Deaths Among Minorities During Pandemic Requires Nationwide Tracking; Religious Leaders Are Correct In Calling For Social Distancing
Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Disproportionately Killing Minorities Is No Coincidence
As COVID-19 spreads across the United States, Americans can see the grim daily tallies of the cases and deaths, broken down by geography, age and sex. Only a few jurisdictions, however, are breaking down the numbers by racial and ethnic groups as well, and the story those figures tell when they’re available is disturbing. In Michigan, for example, African Americans accounted for 33% of COVID-19 cases and 41% of deaths as of Monday, though they represent only 14% of the overall population. In Chicago, 72% of the deaths have been among the city’s black residents, though they make up 29% of the population. The numbers are almost identical in Louisiana. (4/8)
The Washington Post: The CDC Must End Its Silence On The Racial Impact Of Covid-19
The early data suggest that the covid-19 pandemic is hitting black communities particularly hard. As of Monday, African Americans made up 27 percent of the population in Milwaukee County, Wis., but 70 percent of its covid-19 deaths. In Chicago: 30 percent of the population but 69 percent of deaths. And in Louisiana, the disparity is 32 percent and 70 percent. A similar divide can be seen in Michigan, where African Americans make up 14 percent of the population and, as of last Friday, accounted for 40 percent of covid-19 deaths. The disproportionate impact appears to be attributable to preexisting conditions — high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and inadequate access to health care — that make African Americans more vulnerable to the disease. But the handful of examples above raises an urgent question: Does the effect hold true for African Americans throughout the country? (Spencer Overton, 4/7)
USA Today: On Coronavirus, Biological Age Is More Important Than How Old You Are
We hear constantly about the serious consequences of COVID-19 for older adults and the need to stay at home. Undoubtedly, the disease carries a disproportionate risk for them. In the United States, 80% of deaths from COVID-19 have occurred in adults age 65 and older. But here is the important part: The case fatality rate (the number of deaths among people who contract COVID-19) varies greatly across age groups in late life. Everyone over age 65 is not the same in the context of the pandemic. People who are 65 years old have rates of death — and likelihoods of recovery — vastly different from patients who are 85 years old. We need to stop lumping all older adults into one category and making decisions based on this blunt criterion. Doing so misses important differences across age. (Karen L. Fingerman and Kelly Trevino, 4/7)
CNN: The Risk To Native American Nations From Covid-19
The Indian Health Service, founded 65 years ago and criticized ever since, has encountered yet another major challenge: Covid-19 -- or as the Navajo call it Dikos Ntsaaígíí. Recent reports from the Navajo Nation, which straddles Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, have shown a sudden rise in cases, from about 10 people diagnosed two weeks ago to 216 on April 1, including 40 cases added in a single day. The latest tally from the Navajo Department of Health is 354, though the exact number of cases is difficult to determine because of different lines of reporting to state and Navajo health departments. (Sepkowitz, 4/7)
The Advocate: Tony Spell Is An Attention-Seeking Fool. That's Not What A Pastor Should Be.
We’re at war, all of us, collectively, with a highly contagious, invisible, and deadly enemy. Most are sacrificing, some more than others, doing what’s right, focused on lowering coronavirus-related deaths. Tony Spell’s fighting another battle. The pastor of Life Tabernacle in Central continues to bus in hundreds from surrounding parishes. He’s been charged by prosecutors for doing so. And yet on Tuesday, after those charges were filed, Spell once again filled his church with people. On the very day Louisiana had its highest number of coronavirus deaths to date, Spell turned his sanctuary into a potential breeding ground for a virus he claims is a hoax. (Dan Fagan, 4/5)
The Washington Post: Closed Houses Of Worship And Lonely Seders Aren’t A Surrender To Covid-19
The Passover seder has always been a multigenerational gathering of Jewish family and friends. But this year, amid the covid-19 pandemic, there is a communal consensus that no guests should be allowed to join the seder. The most significant Jewish celebration of the year, when Passover begins on Wednesday at nightfall, will be a muted affair.This is just the latest example of how the pandemic has forced religious groups to make difficult choices. Houses of worship have to decide whether they should remain open. Clergy have to decide whether they will continue to officiate at funerals and weddings. The coronavirus has put health at the top of the agenda and subordinated almost everything else. For many believers, though, prioritizing the secular while ignoring the spiritual is sacrilegious. Yet ultimately, ensuring people’s health and safety is a supreme act of spiritual care. (Chaim Steinmetz, 4/7)
The Wall Street Journal: The Art Of Coronavirus Modeling
Modeling the course of the coronavirus pandemic may still be as much art as science as projections are shifting as more information becomes available. The good news is that conditions in most of the country are less dire than early models predicted, and public-health experts will have to study the reasons to help the country emerge from this economically destructive shutdown. The so-called Murray model by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation on Tuesday projected 81,766 fatalities over the next four months, which is about the same as it forecast two weeks ago. But predictions for individual states have shifted, sometimes dramatically. (4/7)
The New York Times: When Will There Be A Treatment For The Coronavirus?
For all of modern medicine’s advances, the immune system is still largely on its own when it comes to viruses: Of the 200 or so types that are known to infect humans, only about 10 have approved treatments, according to the science journalist Matthew Hutson. The race is now on to make the coronavirus the 11th: With a vaccine at least a year away, an effective treatment may be the country’s best hope for making a recovery before next year. But how close are researchers to finding a drug that works? Here’s a look at where things stand. (Bokat-Lindell, 4/7)
The Wall Street Journal: Billionaires Have Their Uses
Let us now speak in favor of billionaires. We refer specifically to Bill Gates, who was recently asked what good his fortune could do in this pandemic. “Governments will eventually come up with lots of money,” he replied on a TV show. “But they don’t know where to direct it. They can’t move as quickly.” The Microsoft mogul turned philanthropist said his “early money can accelerate things” in developing a vaccine against Covid-19. “For example, of all the vaccine constructs, the seven most promising of those, even though we’ll end up picking at most two of them, we’re going to fund factories for all seven,” he added. Rather than waiting to find out which vaccines are most effective and safe, and then building factories, Mr. Gates wants to ensure that the manufacturing capacity is ready to go immediately. (4/7)
NBC News: Coronavirus Shows Us Why The Time To Decide On End-Of-Life Care Is When You're Not Sick
We are emergency physicians who work on the front lines battling COVID-19 in academic and community emergency departments — and we are worried. We hope to save every person struck by coronavirus (or any other affliction), but the nature of life is that, sooner or later, we won't succeed. Limited supplies, like N95 masks, coupled with the possible need to ration resources, most notably ventilators, already haunts us. But the reality beyond the headlines is that, even if we could provide everything that every patient needed, it will often not be enough. (Dr. Rita A. Manfredi, Dr. Breanne Jacobs and Dr. James P. Phillips, 4/8)
Stat: Excluding Medical Students From Covid-19 Care Is Bad For Medicine
The devastating coronavirus pandemic is highlighting the dedication and courage of health care communities in the United States and around the world. Many aspects of the pandemic worry me, especially one related to the education of medical students and medical staffing in the U.S. (James R. Baker Jr., 4/8)
Boston Globe: Post-Coronavirus, How Will We Address The Trauma Health Care Workers Have Suffered?
What we can also hear in their stories are the many ways that health care systems and governments have failed them. Hospital administrators and others must begin now to think about the short- and long-term mental health implications for this morally courageous group of nurses, physicians, and other front-line workers. (Connie M. Ulrich, 4/6)
Modern Healthcare: Ending Sheltering In Place Too Soon Will Be Catastrophic
Imagine trying to hold your breath. Some of us can hold it only for a few moments, others for a bit longer. Now imagine trying to hold your breath as someone starts taking the air out of your lungs. The impulse to breathe becomes much stronger. This is what is happening all over the country as we feel the effects of "sheltering in place." We sit at home watching the stock market fall and companies lay off employees or put them on furlough. We all want social distancing to end and for life to go back to normal. (Ira Bedzow and Adam E. Block, 4/6)
