Viewpoints: What Is Causing The Rise In Covid Variant EG.5?
Editorial writers discuss variant EG.5, Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs, internet delusions, and more.
Bloomberg:
Covid EG.5 Subvariant Surge: Is Heat To Blame?
Is the current rise in Covid hospitalizations really the result of people moving indoors to enjoy air conditioning? Experts and journalists often make this assumption when they’re quoted in the media about the virus’s small summer “waves” or “surges” (which, this year, is really more like a small uptick). (F.D. Flam, 8/9)
Stat:
Mark Cuban Is Blaming The Wrong People For High Drug Costs
Mark Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks owner and “Shark Tank” star, has been making headlines recently with his direct-to-consumer venture, Cost Plus Drugs. The company sells generic prescription drugs and boasts more than 2 million members. As a family medicine specialist who has firsthand experience with American households’ dissatisfaction with the state of the nation’s prescription drug marketplace, I believe the enthusiasm for Cost Plus Drugs reveals an appetite for alternatives to the status quo in the pharmaceutical industry. (Josh Wenzell, 8/10)
Los Angeles Times:
I Treat Schizophrenia. It's Getting Hard To Distinguish Its Delusions From Our Current Digital Reality
I have been running a day treatment program for individuals with schizophrenia for nearly seven years. Schizophrenia is an often life-altering psychiatric condition that is characterized by profound changes in cognition, perception and emotional expression. Among the core symptoms are delusional thoughts, currently defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5, as “fixed beliefs that are not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence.” (Alaina Burns, 8/10)
The Star Tribune:
Medicaid 'Unwinding' Creates Challenges
The plight of a Florida family illustrates the high stakes involved in "Medicaid unwinding" — the massive effort underway nationwide to redetermine medical assistance eligibility in the COVID pandemic's aftermath. (8/9)
Modern Healthcare:
Working To Elevate The Patient Experience
The healthcare industry is facing a wide variety of challenges—and solutions aren’t always straightforward. Each month, Modern Healthcare asks leaders in the field to weigh in on their approaches to the sector’s thorny issues. (Camille Haycock and Patrick Ryan, 8/9)
