Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Advocates, Police Worry That Fewer Domestic Violence Calls Mean Victims Aren't Getting Help During Quarantine
Since the beginning of COVID-19-related stay-at-home orders, police and advocacy groups across the country have warned that domestic violence calls could increase with people being cooped up at home, tempers more likely to flare, abusers more likely to lash out. And although data in a few of America's largest cities initially suggests otherwise, multiple agencies told ABC News that may be an even bigger reason for concern. "We're having 10 fewer crime reports each day for instances of domestic violence," Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore said. "That's going in the wrong direction with what we believe is actually happening behind closed doors." (Stone, Mallin and Gutman, 4/25)
A person is sexually assaulted every 73 seconds in the United States, and every nine minutes the victim is a child, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, an anti-sexual violence organization. Those incidents of sexual violence do not stop while the nation is under stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic, and experts said they fear cases may be getting even worse due to stress and isolation caused by the pandemic. (Kindelan, 4/27)
鈥淚s he going to make it?鈥 Kim Bello asked, clutching her phone, alone in her yard. She had slipped outside so her three children, playing games in the living room, could be shielded from a wrenching conversation with a doctor treating her husband, Jim. For two weeks, he had been battling the coronavirus at Massachusetts General Hospital, on a ventilator and, for the past nine days, connected to a last-resort artificial heart-lung machine as well. (Belluck, 4/26)
Hospitals aren't just seeing reductions in elective procedures, like knee and hip replacements, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. They are also reporting significant drop offs in acute conditions that require immediate care, including heart attacks and appendicitis, raising concerns about whether people are avoiding necessary care for fear of becoming infected by coronavirus. (Livingston, 4/24)
The travel plan was as exhausting as it was risky for the 77-year-old cancer survivor wondering how to leave self-isolation in Ecuador and return home to New Hampshire without catching the coronavirus. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not for the faint of heart and promises to be very grueling, but we wanted to gauge interest,鈥 the American Embassy in Quito, Ecuador, wrote in a notice last month to Americans looking to get back to the United States as the deadly pandemic spread. (Jakes, 4/25)
The coronavirus is reshaping the way some Americans live and even how they receive healthcare. One challenge that has emerged from this crisis is which patients get life-changing surgeries that have been deemed elective medical procedures during the pandemic and which ones wait. (Booker and Kargbo, 4/26)
There is no way to prevent the coronavirus, but there are vaccines for a dozen-plus diseases that threaten children, in particular. And if kids delay or skip their measles, tetanus, whooping cough and rubella vaccinations, communities in Massachusetts and beyond could find themselves dealing with more than one epidemic. (Bebinger, 4/24)
Wearing a face mask or a face covering is the going to be the new normal during the coronavirus pandemic, experts say. But do you have to wear them all the time?聽It's voluntary to wear one, but local and federal health officials strongly recommend covering your nose and mouth in public to help slow the spread of COVID-19. (Wells, 4/24)
