Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Why Is Birth So Traumatic For Many Mothers?; Medical Workers Are Burnt Out By Short Staffing
Stat: When Childbirth Feels Like Rape
The shouting began soon after my son was born. “We’ve got an inversion!” the doctor yelled to his team. Moments earlier, a nurse had pressed my newborn son against my chest. I bent to kiss his dark curls through my surgical mask, then he and my husband were escorted out of the operating room. (Lisa Rab, 2/23)
USA Today: 'We've Just Had Enough': Understaffing At Hopsitals Puts Our Patients At Higher Risk
Front-line workers at HCA hospitals from California to Florida have experienced the same struggles, while the corporation made more than $16 billion in profits in the past three years. (Erika Watanabe, 2/23)
The Washington Post: I’m A Black Physician, And I’m Appalled By Mandated Implicit Bias Training
I’ll never forget my parents’ reaction when I was accepted to the University of California at San Francisco’s medical school. Having attended segregated schools, my mother and father were thrilled that their daughter would attend a fully integrated, top-tier institution. (Marilyn Singleton, 2/22)
The Boston Globe: I Had Employer Support With My Long COVID. Others Aren’t So Lucky
A recent study published in JAMA Network Open found that people with long COVID are more likely to be unemployed, particularly if they suffer from cognitive symptoms that make holding on to full-time employment difficult if not impossible. (Kimberly Atkins Stohr, 2/22)
Newsweek: We Need A COVID Commission
Our collective response to the COVID-19 pandemic constituted history's biggest public health mistake. We did not properly protect older high-risk Americans, while many ineffective COVID restrictions have generated long-term collateral public health damage that is now upon us. Both have yielded excess deaths. Public health crashed. (Martin Kulldorff and Jay Bhattacharya, 2/22)
Also —
Stat: The Supreme Court Doesn't Belong In Your Medicine Cabinet
The silence from corporate America amid new attacks on women’s reproductive health care has been deafening. As the federal courts consider whether to override the FDA’s judgment on first-trimester abortion pills, it’s time for health care leaders to speak out about the repercussions of taking away medical sovereignty from 40 million women. (Paul J. Hastings, 2/23)
The Star Tribune: Price Controls Would Harm State's Biotech Economy
Minnesota's state legislators are considering a pair of bills that could inadvertently restrict patients' access to new medicines and drive high-paying biotech jobs out of the state. (John Stanford, 2/22)
Kansas City Star: Walgreens Bows To Kobach Threats On Abortion Pills In Kansas
When Kris Kobach is your attorney general, you can count on him to do Kobach things. But it’s a little unusual for someone as large and sophisticated as pharmacy titan Walgreens to roll over for him like the company did on Mifepristone, a drug commonly used to induce abortion. Over the past couple of weeks, Kobach threatened Walgreens with prosecution if the company tries to distribute the drug through its pharmacies in Kansas — and Walgreens blinked. (Dion Lefler, 2/22)
The Star Tribune: A Smart Solution For High Drug Costs
Hospitals annually discard an estimated $3 billion a year in unused prescription medications nationwide. The value of unused drugs thrown away by long-term care facilities: another $2 billion annually. (2/22)
