Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
When Emergency Services Are Overwhelmed By Disaster, Medical Emergencies Can Fall Through The Cracks
The New York Times: Lost In The Storm
Wayne Dailey sat in a waiting area at a Houston hospital, anxious for word about his wife. He and his sister stared at the television to distract themselves. It was Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017, and broadcasters described a large storm moving off the Yucatán Peninsula with Texas in its sights, potentially bringing historic flooding to Houston that weekend. Wayne, who as a child in Galveston County spent hours watching the cloudscapes drift over the Gulf of Mexico, kept multiple weather apps on his phone and had already been tracking the storm. “It’s going to get us,” he told his sister. But coastal storms were a part of life that he had prepared for, and they did not concern him. (Fink, 8/30)
CNN: Pediatricians Drop Age Limit For Rear-Facing Car Seats
Children should ride in rear-facing car seats until they reach the height or weight limit for the seat, according to updated recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics. This changes the academy's previous guidance, which said children should ride in rear-facing seats until at least age 2. The new recommendation eliminates the age-specific milestone to turn a child's car seat around. (Gumbrecht, 8/30)
The New York Times: A Fertility Doctor Used His Sperm On Unwitting Women. Their Children Want Answers.
To couples at the end of their ropes who wanted children but could not conceive them for medical reasons, Dr. Donald Cline was a savior of sorts, offering to match the women with sperm from anonymous men resembling their partners. Many couples sought Dr. Cline out at his Indianapolis-area fertility clinic during the 1970s and ’80s. They had children, who grew up and had children of their own. (Zaveri, 8/30)
Stat: This Harvard Doctor Has Worn Both A Hospital Gown And A White Coat
[Shekinah] Elmore is a lot of things: She is both a cancer doctor and a “cancer person” — she’s not keen on the word “survivor.” Now 36 and a fourth-year resident in the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program, Elmore has Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a genetic disorder that puts her at high risk for a range of cancers. Having worn both a hospital gown and white coat, she moves through her work with a kind of double vision, seeing through the eyes of a patient and of a provider. The two views are hard to reconcile, and leave her wondering what can be done to bridge the gaps that exist between doctors and their patients. (Farber, 8/31)
The Wall Street Journal: Your DNA, Your Diet: How Nutrition Is Being Personalized
Cynthia Fife-Townsel, a Chicago librarian, had been researching nutrition and DNA profiling to help her understand her body and improve her health. So when she saw an advertisement offering an at-home DNA and blood-test kit from a company called Habit for just $200, she decided to give it a try. (Ostroff, 8/30)
The New York Times: The Bugs Are Coming, And They’ll Want More Of Our Food
Ever since humans learned to wrest food from soil, creatures like the corn earworm, the grain weevil and the bean fly have dined on our agricultural bounty. Worldwide, insect pests consume up to 20 percent of the plants that humans grow for food, and that amount will increase as global warming makes bugs hungrier, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. That could encourage farmers to use more pesticides, which could cause further environmental harm, scientists said. (Pierre-Louis, 8/30)
The New York Times: Too Many Chinese Children Need Glasses. Beijing Blames Video Games.
It started this week with a call to action from China’s leader, Xi Jinping. Too many of the country’s children need glasses, he said, and the government was going to do something about it. It ended on Friday with billions of dollars being wiped from the market value of the world’s largest video game company. (Zhong, 8/31)
