Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Way Past Time To Fund Research On Gun Violence; Is It Time To Admit That The Approach To Cancer Is Misguided For The Most Part?
Louisville Courier Journal: Pediatric Emergency Doctors Plead For Gun Violence Research
As doctors who take care of children who are shot, we implore you to support federal funding for gun violence research. After accounting for suicides, homicides and unintentional injuries, firearm injuries kill more children aged 1 to 19 than cancer. Can you imagine not doing research on childhood cancer? (Kerry Caperell and Brit Anderson, 10/3)
The Wall Street Journal: Cancer Is Still Beating Us—We Need A New Start
I have been studying and treating cancer for 35 years, and here’s what I know about the progress made in that time: There has been far less than it appears. Despite some advances, the treatments for most kinds of cancer continue to be too painful, too damaging, too expensive and too ineffective. The same three methods—surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy—have prevailed for a half-century. Consider acute myeloid leukemia, the bone-marrow malignancy that is my specialty. AML accounts for a third of all leukemia cases. (Azra Raza, 10/4)
The Washington Post: I’m A Female Doctor. I Often Face Sexual Harassment At The Hospital. And I’m Not The Only One.
We had spent only a few minutes together, but in that short time my patient had already assembled several lewd comments about how my body looked in loose blue scrubs, speculated about my sexual proclivities and compared me to women he had previously “enjoyed.” He asked if I had a boyfriend, if I liked to have fun. The last thing I wanted to do was check for sensation around his testicles. It was a necessary piece of information. The patient had arrived in the Emergency Department complaining of back pain. (Jennifer Tsai, 10/5)
The Hill: How We Can Empower Biomedical Engineers To Combat Superbugs
At an almost alarming rate, news stories about new “superbugs” are popping up around the world. Earlier this year, a patient in New York died from a drug-resistant salmonella infection. Two years ago, a woman in Nevada died of an incurable infection, resistant to all 26 antibiotics available to treat that infection. And recent reports from India reveal that superbugs have become the leading cause of death for leukemia patients. Every year, 700,000 people die from incurable drug-resistant infections, a rate that some project will skyrocket to 10 million individuals per year in just 30 years. The United Nations has likened it to a crisis on par with HIV and Ebola. (Jason Papin, 10/5)
The Washington Post: Virginians Have A Chance To Improve Abortion Rights In November
To have an abortion in Virginia, a woman by law must undergo an ultrasound and listen to state-mandated information designed to shame her. She must then wait 24 hours before having the abortion. There is no medical reason — absolutely none — for this requirement. It just makes it harder and more costly to have an abortion. That is exactly what Republican lawmakers had in mind when they imposed this and other abortion restrictions, so it’s more than a little distressing that a federal judge has let them get away with it. (10/6)
The Wall Street Journal: Kentucky’s Ambulance Cartel Is Afraid Of Phillip Truesdell
Phillip Truesdell is in the nonemergency ambulance business. When people are confined to a stretcher, need an intravenous bag, or are undergoing dialysis, they can’t simply hop into an Uber. They need an ambulance to get around. It’s an essential service, and running the business, Legacy Medical Transport, has allowed Mr. Truesdell to keep his son and daughter employed and close to home in Aberdeen, Ohio. Legacy started in 2017 with one ambulance. Today they have seven trucks making more than 1,500 trips a year. (Anastasia Boden, 10/4)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Steps To Help Ensure Quality Assisted Living Care
The new investigative series in the AJC, “Unprotected,” highlights all-too-common problems experienced by those needing long-term care and services. How can individuals and families know that the place they select will be a good fit for their needs? (Lori Smetanka, 10/5)
Boston Globe: Another Set Of Eyes On DCF
Those heartbreaking stories of children who fell through the cracks of the Department of Children and Families prompted Governor Charlie Baker to promise major agency reform. With support from the Legislature, funding for the Department of Children and Families has increased. To reduce caseloads, there are more social workers, and virtually all are licensed. But DCF still faces challenges, from glitchy computers to poor retention of foster families. (10/5)
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Rising Poverty Ensnares Many Cleveland-Area Children In Want. What To Do About It?
More than half all Cleveland children now live in poverty. That is among shocking figures in new Census Bureau estimates showing rising poverty in Cleveland, its suburbs and elsewhere in Ohio and the Midwest. Cleveland.com data analyst Rich Exner found that about 216,000 people in Cuyahoga County remain entrapped in poverty - roughly 124,000 in Cleveland and 92,000 in the suburbs. (10/5)
Los Angeles Times: San Francisco's E-Cigarette Ban Was Bad. The Industry's Fix Is Worse.
After San Francisco County supervisors voted to ban electronic-cigarette sales earlier this year, the nation’s largest seller of e-cigarettes, Juul Labs, financed a local ballot measure to try to overturn the ban in the Nov. 5 municipal election.The original prohibition on sales of electronic-cigarette products in stores and online, which is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, is an overreach and generally bad policy. Although intended as an effort to curb teen vaping, which is all too common despite being illegal under California law, it penalizes legal adult users as well by forcing them to travel to other cities to buy electronic cigarettes, while leaving indisputably unsafe conventional cigarettes on store shelves. Nevertheless, Juul’s repeal-and-replace measure, Proposition C, is even worse. (10/7)
San Francisco Chronicle: Mayor Breed Needs To Tackle SF Sidewalk Misery With The Same Energy She Brings To Housing
Mayor London Breed visited The Chronicle the other day to explain why she should be elected to her first four-year term. My eyes told me there was just one of her sitting at the head of the conference table, but my ears told me there were two. On housing, Breed knew her stuff, laid out big plans and clearly explained her vision. On the devastating trifecta of homelessness, drug addiction and untreated mental illness? Not so much. (Heather Knight, 10/4)
