Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: US Life Span Worst Of Developed Nations; Will Texas Women Go To Mexico For Safe Abortions?
The Atlantic: Why Is America So Bad At Keeping People Alive?
America has a death problem. No, I’m not just talking about the past year and a half, during which COVID-19 deaths per capita in the United States outpaced those in similarly rich countries, such as Canada, Japan, and France. And I’m not just talking about the past decade, during which drug overdoses skyrocketed in the U.S., creating a social epidemic of what are often called “deaths of despair.” (Derek Thompson, 9/12)
USA Today: Could Mexico Be A Safer Place To Get An Abortion Than Texas?
Believe it or not, Mexico is potentially opening the gates to Texas women who may want to seek safe abortions and evade all those private citizens the state just turned into abortion-avengers. In a stunning turn of events for women’s rights, Mexico’s Supreme Court on Tuesday decriminalized abortion in the heavily Catholic country. The court ruling doesn’t automatically provide blanket legal protection across Mexico, but it paves the way to legalize the procedure currently allowed in only four states – Mexico City, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Hidalgo. (Elvia Diaz, 9/12)
The New York Times: In Texas, When Is Abortion Legal To Save A Woman’s Life?
Join us, if you will, in a thought experiment. It’s the fall of 2022. Dr. H., an obstetrician-gynecologist, practices in a red state. Much has changed in the reproductive rights landscape by then: In the spring, her state rushed to pass a law similar to the notorious 2021 Texas law that bans a large majority of abortions and incentivizes private citizens to sue anyone helping someone get an abortion. The Supreme Court also overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that year, leaving the issue of abortion regulation to individual states; a few years before, Dr. H.’s state passed a trigger ban that automatically banned the few abortions that were still legal in the state when Roe fell. In her state, the law now allows an abortion only when a pregnancy threatens the life of a pregnant person. (Carole Joffe and Jody Steinauer, 9/12)
Newsweek: Government And Industry May Miss Health Care's Machine Learning Moment
The public has lost confidence in our public health agencies and officials—and also our political leaders—thanks to confusing and contradictory pronouncements and policies related to the coronavirus pandemic. But don't think for a moment that leadership failures in health care are confined to COVID-19. Two other recent stories highlight how both government and industry are missing an opportunity to use new machine learning technology to deliver better health care at a lower cost. (Steve Forbes, 9/10)
Bloomberg: Elizabeth Holmes's Theranos Goal Was Medically Useless
Blood-testing technology has rocketed ahead in the last five years — the interval of time since it came to light that the former $9 billion startup Theranos Inc. hadn’t actually invented a way to do thousands of lifesaving blood tests using a finger stick. Today, some companies really can do thousands of tests using a single drop of blood. But that advance hasn’t revolutionized medicine, a blood-testing fantasy promoted as science by Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who went on trial this week for wire fraud and conspiracy. Here’s how she put her vision in a 2014 TED talk: “We see a world in which every person has access to actionable health information at the time it matters. A world in which no one has to say, ‘If only I’d known sooner,’ a world in which no one has to say goodbye too soon.” (Faye Flam, 9/12)
CNN: Elizabeth Holmes' Surprising Defense
Elizabeth Holmes, Silicon Valley's one-time darling for founding and leading the now failed biotech company Theranos, is on trial in one of the most highly anticipated criminal fraud cases in the country -- and one of her potential defense strategies is not what you might expect. At the age of 32, Holmes was dubbed the "youngest self-made woman billionaire" by Forbes. Her revolutionary biotech startup, Theranos, had a market valuation of over $9 billion, and was by all accounts the elusive Silicon Valley unicorn: a company promising to democratize the health care system through proprietary blood diagnostic technology. Holmes boasted the ability to do an array of blood tests from a single finger pinprick with just a few drops of blood, and claimed she could do it better, quicker, and cheaper than traditional blood testing. Except she couldn't. (Caroline Polisi, 9/12)
Stat: How A 'Tragically Flawed' Paradigm Has Derailed The Science Of Obesity
I’ve been a science reporter for 40 years. I’ve wanted to assume that the experts I interview can be trusted to understand their subjects. Put simply, to get it right. But watching researchers in the field of obesity almost blindly follow a failed paradigm has led me to cross a line that few journalists ever do, to publicly embrace and promote a minority opinion that many in the obesity field think is quackery. (Gary Taubes, 9/13)
Scientific American: Opioids And Cigarettes Are Both Harmful, But Opioids Have Valid Medical Uses
Both cigarettes and opioids are highly addictive—and potentially deadly. Both substances are sold by profiteering companies using science distorted by spin or outright lies. And both have been the subjects of multi-billion-dollar lawsuits. But opioids are not cigarettes. And as the opioid settlements finally near completion, it is crucial not to misapply lessons learned from tobacco. Fundamentally, this means accepting that—unlike cigarettes—opioids have genuine uses in both pain and addiction medicine. (Maia Szalavitz, 9/12)
Stat: Combating The Burnout Bottleneck Among Clinical Research Workers
Health care professionals of all stripes were battling burnout and mental illness before the pandemic began, and Covid-19 has only made it worse. The struggles of physicians and nurses get the lion’s share of attention. One group left out of the news stories and conversations are clinical research workers. (Andrea Bastek, 9/13)
