Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: We Are Failing Postpartum Families; Lifesaving Reforms Needed For Organ Donation System
The Boston Globe: Let Duxbury Tragedy Be A Warning: Postpartum Mental Health Care Needs To Be A Priority
One in five women will experience a mental health disorder during pregnancy or in the first year following childbirth, according to the Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to maternal mental health advocacy. (1/27)
The New York Times: Tonya Ingram Feared The Organ Donation System Would Kill Her. It Did
The organ procurement system is made up of 56 organizations, each with a monopoly in its jurisdiction. When someone dies and can donate an organ, O.P.O.s are supposed to go to the hospital, talk to the person’s family and manage the process of transporting donated organs to those in need, but all too often they have failed to show up — literally. (Kendall Ciesemier, 1/28)
Newsweek: Med School Departures From Rankings System Is Symptom Of Bad Medicine
Last week, Harvard Medical School dean George Q. Daley announced that his institution—America's number one-ranked medical school according to U.S. News and World Report—will no longer participate in that publication's coveted system of institutional rankings. (Paul Du Quenoy, 1/27)
Chicago Tribune: UChicago Can Disdain US News Rankings, But Costly Med Schools Shouldn’t Be Judging Themselves
On Thursday, the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine announced it was withdrawing from the popular rankings published by U.S. News and World Report, the former newsweekly that has carved out a niche ranking individual programs and schools at colleges and universities, as well as entire institutions. (1/27)
Also —
The Washington Post: How The World Bank’s Pandemic Fund Can Live Up To Its Great Potential
In response to the covid-19 pandemic, world leaders in November launched a new global Pandemic Fund housed at the World Bank to break the historic pattern of “panic and neglect” regarding global disease outbreaks. (Lawrence H. Summers, Robert Hecht and Shan Soe-Lin, 1/30)
Bloomberg: Long Covid Research Is Teaching Us About Alzheimer’s, ALS And More
Science is starting to uncover an unnerving fact about viruses: Some might affect our brains over the long haul. It came as a shock that SARS-CoV-2 can lead to lingering neurological problems — a post-viral syndrome we call long Covid. But the phenomenon might not be unique to this virus. (Faye Flam, 1/28)
Bloomberg: A Better Covid Vaccine Could Prevent Transmission And Long Covid
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee paved the way for a simpler, flu-like plan for Covid. Everyone, whether they’ve been vaccinated before or not, will get a shot tailored to variants on the virus. And likely, people will get those shots once every fall. (Lisa Jarvis, 1/29)
Stat: The Long Reach Of Missing Covid-19 Race And Ethnicity Data
At every stage of the Covid-19 pandemic, national reporting of racial and ethnic disparities in Covid-19 testing, diagnosis, disease severity, treatment, and vaccination by clinicians, public health organizations, and the media has been marred by frustrating data deficiencies. How bad has the problem been? Far beyond bad. (Jennifer W. Tsai, Rohan Khazanchi and Emily Laflamme, 1/30)
