Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Will People Take Covid Precautions This Time?; Cancer Diagnosis May Not Be Cancer
Arizona Republic: New COVID Variant Emerges, But Will Americans Mask Up Again?
More and more public-health officials are dusting off their old face masks and encouraging Americans to do the same for the new BA.2.86 variant of COVID-19, he explained. Hearing that, Meghan McCain went to social media and spoke for an entire nation: “Uh no, we ain’t starting this s--- again.” (Phil Boas, 8/30)
The New York Times: Not Everything We Call Cancer Should Be Called Cancer
“You have cancer. ”Ask anyone who has been told this: It’s terrifying. That’s one reason we need to rethink what we call cancer. Despite amazing advances in our understanding of the disease, we have neglected to update how we define what has been called “the emperor of all maladies.” (Laura Esserman and Scott Eggener, 8/30)
Bloomberg: Covid's Back. Who's Most Likely To Get It Again?
A new study is offering data to back one of the core assumptions about the spread of Covid: The intensity of exposure to the virus matters, and vaccines and prior infections can only help so much — but they do indeed help. (Lisa Jarvis, 8/29)
The Washington Post: What Aging Looks Like Now
Undoubtedly, people do look much younger now than they did in previous decades. The standard-bearers may be unrealistic: 50-year-old Gwyneth Paltrow with her abs, or Martha Stewart in her sultry SI swimsuit cover. But a look back at stars from films in the 1950s, ’60s or ’70s — and even into the early 2000s — shows how health and our own standards of physical maintenance have improved. Developments in sunscreen, the introduction of retinol and prescription Retin-A, and the decline in hazardous habits such as smoking cigarettes, mean that people look younger. (Rachel Tashjian, 8/29)
Stat: The Butterfly Effect And The Youth Mental Health Crisis
In inpatient child psychology, we treat children in crisis deemed at imminent risk of harm to themselves or others. I am grateful for the opportunity to try and help — but it is daunting. A study published earlier this year found an overwhelming spike in mental illness-related crises in the past decade. This is particularly true for youth, for whom mental health-related emergency room visits have doubled, with a five-fold increase in the proportion of those visits that are for suicide-related symptoms. (Sharmila B. Mehta, 8/30)
