Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
When Being Tied Down To Kidney Dialysis Is Unappealing, An Alternative Option Few Are Told About Can Help Older Patients
The New York Times: Dialysis Is A Way Of Life For Many Older Patients. Maybe It Shouldn’t Be.
John Everdell had lived most of his life with kidney disease. As a young man awaiting a transplant, he had briefly undergone dialysis. That’s how he knew, when the prospect of kidney failure loomed again in his late 60s, that he would refuse dialysis this round. “He was a very independent man, with an idea of how he was going to live his life,” said Trix Oakley, his partner of 22 years. (Span, 2/15)
USA Today: Spanking Kids Harms Mental Health, Says American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association joined a growing list of health organizations calling for a ban to spanking because it can cause short- and long-term harm to children. The association has long warned physical discipline can be harmful to kids' mental health. It made its position official Feb. 15 with a policy change. (Haller, 2/18)
The New York Times: ‘It Is Not A Closet. It Is A Cage.’ Gay Catholic Priests Speak Out
Gregory Greiten was 17 years old when the priests organized the game. It was 1982 and he was on a retreat with his classmates from St. Lawrence, a Roman Catholic seminary for teenage boys training to become priests. Leaders asked each boy to rank which he would rather be: burned over 90 percent of his body, paraplegic or gay. Each chose to be scorched or paralyzed. Not one uttered the word “gay.” They called the game the Game of Life. The lesson stuck. Seven years later, he climbed up into his seminary dorm window and dangled one leg over the edge. “I really am gay,” Father Greiten, now a priest near Milwaukee, remembered telling himself for the first time. “It was like a death sentence.” (Dias, 2/17)
Bloomberg: Does CBD Oil Work? Industry Needs Data To Back Up Health Claims
While CBD is generally believed to be safe, scant research has been conducted on its medical and health benefits because cannabis has long been prohibited at the federal level. The only clinically proven remedy is a treatment for two rare forms of childhood epilepsy. All other claims are anecdotal. Now regulators are starting to pay closer attention. Earlier this month, New York health officials ordered bakeries and restaurants to stop adding cannabidiol, the formal name for CBD, to beverages and food. In December the Food and Drug Administration made clear that it’s illegal to market CBD products as dietary supplements. (Giammona and Owram, 2/17)
Stat: MilliporeSigma Is Poised To Win A CRISPR Patent
The usual suspects have done a fine job of turning the CRISPR patent landscape into a minefield for companies trying to figure out what intellectual property they need to make their hoped-for therapies, but an unusual suspect is about to mix things up even more. The MilliporeSigma subsidiary of Germany-based pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA will soon receive a patent on an invention that increases CRISPR’s efficiency and decreases its off-target effects, according to documents posted this month by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Both attributes could be extremely useful to would-be developers of treatments based on the genome-editing tool. (Begley, 2/19)
Arizona Republic: Grand Canyon Uranium Case: 6 Things To Know About Radiation Exposure
If you spent time in the museum collectibles building at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon over the past two decades, you may have been exposed to unsafe levels of radiation. Three five-gallon containers brimming with uranium ore were stored in the building, next to a taxidermy exhibit where tours sometimes stopped for presentations. Here's what you should know. (Wagner, 2/18)
Los Angeles Times: Why American Voters Were Primed For A President Who Talks Like Trump
When in the grips of oratorical passion, President Obama liked to paraphrase the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. about the “long arc of history” bending toward justice. But when it comes to the oratory of American politicians, history’s long arc is bending away from such lofty rhetorical flourishes. New research finds that the punch-and-jab style of President Trump’s public speech — pugnaciously declarative, larded with personal pronouns, and light on the kinds of phrases that soften a claim or elevate an idea — appears to be just where presidential discourse is headed. (Healy, 2/15)
The Washington Post: New Ebola Treatments Are Being Tested In Congo Outbreak Area
Amid the second-largest Ebola outbreak ever, the hunt for a lifesaving treatment is on. A clinical trial of patients taking place in Congo is gathering evidence on experimental therapies, to provide a proven option when the deadly virus inevitably emerges again. The first multidrug clinical trial of Ebola therapies, which began enrolling patients in November, will compare the effectiveness of three antibody treatments and one antiviral drug. One therapy tested briefly during the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa, the largest ever, has already shown promise. (Cunningham, 2/17)
Denver Post: Colorado Men's Experiences On Kidney Donor List Indicative Of State's Long Wait Times
About 100,000 people across the country are waiting for a kidney, according to the Living Kidney Donor Network. Coloradans on that list sometimes have to wait longer for a transplant. While average wait times fluctuate from place to place, most people spend four years waiting, according to the UNOS Kidney Learning Center, an online resource for kidney donations. In Colorado, that average stretches to five to seven years, depending on blood type, said Vidya Bhandaram , a kidney transplant doctor at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center. (Barnett, 2/17)
