Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'We Didn’t Get Into This Crisis Overnight': A Look At How Fentanyl Has Thwarted Both The Trump And Obama Administrations
The Washington Post: Trump Administration Struggles To Confront Fentanyl Crisis
In a dungeon-like jail in the center of this depressed farming town, 18 women in orange-and-white-striped prison uniforms are crammed into a two-story cellblock. Many of them are withdrawing from fentanyl. ... The inmates here are at least alive — unlike so many drug users in this part of central Ohio, 40 miles southwest of Columbus. Fayette County has the seventh-highest number of fentanyl overdose deaths per capita in the nation, according to internal data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention obtained and analyzed by The Washington Post. While the Trump administration has made the opioid epidemic a priority, people in communities across the country continue to die in record numbers from fentanyl, and health officials are struggling to provide treatment for tens of thousands more, like the men and women warehoused inside this jail. (Horwitz, Higham, Rich and Hanssen, 5/22)
In other news on the crisis —
Politico: How Joe Biden’s Drug Policies Supercharged The Opioid Crisis
In April, as he prepared to announce his presidential candidacy, Joe Biden went on an apology tour that noticeably stopped short of issuing any apologies. He called Anita Hill and, in the words of a campaign statement, shared “his regret for what she endured” at the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, which Biden chaired some 28 years ago. He recorded a video expressing regret for not being more “mindful” of the personal-space boundaries of women after several allegations of unwanted and nonconsensual touching. He then went on “The View” and argued that in neither of these instances did his actions warrant an apology. He did, however, half-apologize for one thing: His role in creating one of the most insidious aspects of the War on Drugs, even while minimizing his role in it. (Siegel, 5/23)
