Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: WHO's Changes Could Prevent Future Pandemics; India Is Trying New Way To Educate Patients
The Washington Post: WHO Agreement Could Help Prepare The World For The Next Pandemic
Despite years of warnings, much of the world was unprepared for the covid-19 pandemic. Shortages, confusion and delays cost many lives. Rich nations served themselves first with vaccines, while the poor waited in line. Now, an international effort to redress some of these shortcomings with a new agreement faces a deadline when the 194-member World Health Assembly, the governing body of the World Health Organization, meets next month in Geneva. (4/11)
The New York Times: Patients In India Are Being Taught How To Heal
In India, where health care walks hand in hand with superstition, myths and luck, Mr. Balakrishnappa helps patients sift through good and bad information — a matter of life and death both inside a critical care ward and after patients are discharged. (Vidya Krishnan, 4/12)
The Washington Post: Why I’m Going Public With My Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
Why am I going public about this cancer that many men are uncomfortable talking about? Because I want to lift the veil and share lifesaving information, and I want all men to benefit from the medical research to which I’ve devoted my career and that is now guiding my care. (Former NIH Director Francis Collins, 4/12)
The Atlantic: Britain Confronts The Shaky Evidence For Youth Gender Medicine
In a world without partisan politics, the Cass report on youth gender medicine would prompt serious reflection from American trans-rights activists, their supporters in the media, and the doctors and institutions offering hormonal and surgical treatments to minors. At the request of the English National Health Service, the senior pediatrician Hilary Cass has completed the most thorough consideration yet of this field, and her report calmly and carefully demolishes many common activist tropes. (Helen Lewis, 4/12)
Stat: Needed For Reproductive Justice And Autonomy: Women In Design
Powerful groups of mostly men are making major decisions about biology and bodies they know little about. Embryos in deep freeze that may never be used are just the latest example. As a professor of biomedical design for the past 20 years, I have seen this trend increase in a seemingly exponential way since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing states to ban abortion. And women continue to suffer from suboptimal medical care because of procedures and devices that were flawed from the start. (Catherine M. Klapperich, 4/12)
Stat: Congress Needs To Enact The Nuclear Medicine Clarification Act
If a preventable error that might cause harm occurs during medical care, should there be transparency, or should the incident be swept under the rug? A rule proposed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) leans toward the latter. (Pam Kohl and Bill Kiser, 4/12)
