Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Supreme Court's Slow Review Of Texas Abortion Law Prolongs Limbo
The Texas Tribune: Texas Abortion Providers Await Supreme Court To Rule On SB8
When Texas imposed the most restrictive abortion law in the nation, doctors and clinics were forced to move their patients quickly to out-of-state providers. And for the past two months, providers have had to work in a sort of limbo as they wait to see if the new law passes the Supreme Court's review. "This is not patient care,” said Dr. CeCe Cheng, a maternal fetal medicine specialist in San Antonio. “This is disaster management. And it has no place in medicine.” (Harper and Klibanoff, 11/23)
CNN: Supreme Court's Head Fake Leaves Texas Women Waiting For Answers On Abortion Rights
Women in Texas who have been blocked from exercising their constitutional right to obtain an abortion for almost three months had reason to expect Monday that the Supreme Court was poised to rule on challenges to the state restrictions. That's because, last week, the court announced that it would release the term's first set of opinions Monday. Abortion providers, lawyers, journalists and anyone following the abortion wars, believed that because the case had been fast-tracked due to confusion on the ground in the country's second-largest state, the opinion was imminent. (de Vogue, 11/22)
In news on other public health matters —
CIDRAP: Disrupted Care, Discrimination Tied To Less Infant Vaccination During COVID
US infants born early in the pandemic were less likely to receive routine childhood vaccinations if their mothers had perinatal care disruptions (those just before or after birth) or experienced discrimination during pregnancy, according to a prospective study today in JAMA Pediatrics. Stony Brook University researchers analyzed data from 4,388 pregnant women 18 years and older across the country recruited from social media from Apr 25 to May 14, 2020. They completed a baseline survey and two follow-up surveys in July and October, at which time 1,107 infants were 3 to 5 months old. (11/22)
The New York Times: Concerns Grow Over Safety Of Aduhelm After Death Of Patient Who Got The Drug
Concerns about safety risks of the controversial new Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm have intensified in the wake of the death of a 75-year-old woman who experienced brain swelling after receiving infusions of the drug as a participant in a clinical trial. The death of the woman, who lived in Canada, occurred in late September and was reported by a doctor to the Food and Drug Administration’s adverse event reporting system this summer. It is being investigated by both the F.D.A. and Biogen, which makes the drug, also known by its scientific name, aducanumab. In a statement Biogen said: “The cause of death is unknown at this time. We know the 75-year-old clinical trial patient was admitted to the hospital with a seizure” and diagnosed with brain swelling. (Belluck, 11/22)
CIDRAP: WHO Urges Vigilance Against H5N6 Avian Flu After Cases Rise In People
The World Health Organization (WHO) said late last week that it's not clear whether highly pathogenic H5N6 avian flu viruses have enhanced potential for infecting people but urged countries to remain vigilant as human cases rise. The WHO said in its risk assessment that 26 H5N6 human infections have been reported in 2021—25 in China and 1 in Laos—with 20 of the patients reporting illness onset after Jun 21. Almost all confirmed cases involved exposure to poultry, and most occurred in adults with a median age of 55 years. One child was infected. All sequenced viruses belonged to hemagglutinin genetic clade 2.3.4.4b, a group of viruses that have gradually become more prevalent in birds in China and neighboring countries over the past year. (11/22)
The Baltimore Sun: More Than 20 People Sickened By Sewage-Tainted Oysters After Maryland Failed To Warn Public Of Contamination
When Chesapeake Bay oysters and other shellfish become contaminated with sewage or other pollution, Maryland environmental officials normally alert the public before any are harvested or eaten. But that didn’t happen after a recent sewage spill in Southern Maryland — and at least two dozen people became ill. (Dance, 11/23)
NPR: Telehealth Visits By Phone May Soon End Unless Legislators Act
Caswell County, where William Crumpton works, runs along the northern edge of North Carolina and is a rural landscape of mostly former tobacco farms and the occasional fast-food restaurant. "There are wide areas where cell phone signals are just nonexistent," Crumpton says. "Things like satellite radio are even a challenge." (Noguchi, 11/23)
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Many Men Don’t Take Good Care Of Themselves. COVID-19 Vaccine Rates Are The Latest In A Problem As Old As Medicine
They are less likely to see the doctor. They eat fewer fruits and vegetables. They’re more likely to smoke, die in alcohol-related crashes, and engage in other activities that can lead to traumatic brain injury. By nearly every measure known, men fall short of women when it comes to taking care of themselves. And for months now, to the surprise of few in the medical profession, men consistently have lagged behind women in getting a COVID-19 vaccine. As of mid-November, 57% of men and boys in the U.S. were fully vaccinated, compared with 61% of women and girls. (Avril and Gantz, 11/23)
The Wall Street Journal: Why Caregivers May Reject Products That Make Life Easier
Look closely at many advertisements, and they often have a common pitch: We’ll make your life easier. But according to a study, this approach may backfire when the products are aimed at helping consumers care for a loved one. The reason is that in those cases, people often value their own effort so much that they feel bad for using products designed to make their life easier. “Exerting more effort makes people feel like better caregivers,” says Ximena Garcia-Rada, an assistant professor of marketing at Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School and one of the co-authors of this study. (Ward, 11/22)
CNN: Selena Gomez Launches New Media Platform Wondermind
Talking about mental health is good for you, according to pop star, actor and producer Selena Gomez, and she's determined to be the catalyst for positive change. The "Ice Cream" singer announced the launch of her latest venture, Wondermind, a mental health platform focused on connecting people with educational resources and ending the stigma around mental illnesses. (Marples, 11/22)
In obituaries —
Stat: Sherif Zaki, A Legendary Disease Detective At CDC, Dies At 65
Sherif Zaki, a legendary disease detective at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who had a photographic memory and a knack for cracking hard cases, has died. Name a newly emerged or vexing infectious pathogen and chances are Zaki played a role in identifying it or tying it to a mysterious outbreak that was defying investigation. He and his team pinpointed Zika virus in the brain tissues of miscarried fetuses, found the hantavirus later named Sin Nombre in the first known hantavirus outbreak in the United States, and confirmed that anthrax was responsible for early deaths in what would become a spate of attacks that petrified the country in the autumn of 2001. (Branswell, 11/22)
Also —
KHN: When The Eye On Older Patients Is A Camera
In the middle of a rainy Michigan night, 88-year-old Dian Wurdock walked out the front door of her son’s home in Grand Rapids, barefoot and coatless. Her destination was unknown even to herself. Wurdock was several years into a dementia diagnosis that turned out to be Alzheimer’s disease. By luck, her son woke up and found her before she stepped too far down the street. As the Alzheimer’s progressed, so did her wandering and with it, her children’s anxiety. “I was losing it,” said her daughter, Deb Weathers-Jablonski. “I needed to keep her safe, especially at night.” (Kodner, 11/23)
