Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Government Control Not Answer To Drug Pricing; ADA Anniversary Marks Progress, Obstacles
President Trump鈥檚 decline in the polls is getting more expensive by the day. The next virus spending bill will cost trillions, and late Friday the President made a pitch for seniors with haphazard executive orders to lower drug prices. His prescription is akin to what Democrats are offering: more government control. (7/26)
Yet just as many of the injustices that the Civil Rights Act aimed to eliminate are still very much with us, and still being resisted, the full promise of the Americans With Disabilities Act has yet to be realized. We are not yet where we need to be. (Judith Heumann and John Wodatch, 7/26)
In remembering disabled activists who were instrumental in the creation of America's disability rights movement and imagining what a more inclusive movement for social justice and full civil rights for the future could look like, we keep coming back to the partnership during the late 1970s between the Black Panther Party and the 504 activists, disability rights advocates who were pushing for implementation of a long-delayed section (section 504) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. (Vilissa Thompson and David J. Johns, 7/25)
Exactly 30 years ago today, on July 26, 1990, President Bush proclaimed proudly, 鈥淲ith today's signing of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act, every man, woman, and child with a disability can now pass through once-closed doors into a bright new era of equality, independence, and freedom." But can they? (Arlene S. Kanter, 7/26)
A senior white physician stands by silently as a white patient uses a slur to describe a Black nurse. A middle-aged doctor asks a Black student why the lower-income Black patients in the clinic aren鈥檛 able to speak and act the way she does. Several young doctors make fun of 鈥淏lack-sounding鈥 names in a newborn unit and speculate when each infant will later enter the penal system. Instances of racism like these are happening in medical schools across America today, just as they happened when I was a medical student 20 years ago. (Damon Tweedy, 7/27)
Disease-modeling communities around the world have been working tirelessly since January to predict how and where Covid-19 will spread, with some real successes. A host of models have illustrated how, with the right resources, we can create relatively accurate disease forecasts that give communities and public health officials an idea of what to expect 鈥 and time to prepare. But what if we could forecast epidemics regularly, before there鈥檚 a global crisis? That notion is inching closer to reality. (Sara Del Valle, 7/27)
A simple decision by mayors throughout the nation will determine if thousands of people live or die. That decision is whether these cities seek the assistance of the FBI and other federal law-enforcement agencies to combat the growth of violence within their jurisdictions. (Steve Levy, 7/27)
But the risks faced by law enforcement are not limited to the聽rioters聽in the street. They聽are聽facing a defunding crisis that wasn鈥檛 brought on by Antifa,聽but by the coronavirus and upcoming state and local budget crises. Across the country,聽law enforcement faces massive budget shortfalls, because聽鈥渟tay at home鈥 orders put people out of work, and blew a hole in the revenue those workers generated. It鈥檚 happening聽in blue and red states, and it should scare all of us. (Bernard Kerik, 7/27)
It didn鈥檛 take long for COVID-19 to highlight some glaring issues in health information technology. Like most businesses globally, healthcare organizations were largely unprepared. We weren鈥檛 adequately prepared to move workforces home; quickly shift to virtual care, and appropriately communicate with patients, families, care teams, and so many others who help deliver the services we provide. We did the best we could, though. We quickly cobbled together solutions and together made them work. (Marc Probst, 7/25)