Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Children's Health Care Not A Priority; Vaccine Production Must Be More Widespread
In March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic swept across the United States, the nation鈥檚 pediatric providers and pediatric units immediately pitched in to treat adults sickened by this then-mysterious and deadly disease. But now that the pediatric community is facing its own March 2020 with the confluence of Covid-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the response from outside this community has been slow. (Sallie Permar and Robert J. Vinci, 12/6)
To avoid a repeat of this tragedy, every region of the world must be able to make its own vaccines. Right now, Africa, Latin America and parts of Southeast Asia rely primarily on imported vaccines. (Amy Maxmen, 12/6)
Whose pandemic strategy really saved lives? Which states or countries lost the most people to the virus? Or to the unintended consequences of mitigation efforts? Now there's finally some clear, objective data emerging from the fog. (Faye Flam, 12/5)
By sharing his genetic test results, actor Chris Hemsworth is accelerating awareness and acceptance of proactive testing. (Robert C. Green, 12/5)
鈥淭he kind of pain that I experienced, for the length of time that I did鈥 I would have ripped out my IUD with my teeth if I could have.鈥 Holly Jameson*, a 23-year-old college-aged woman living in Rhode Island, was motivated to get an IUD (intrauterine device) 鈥 a method of birth control 鈥 as a way to prepare for an unpredictable future after the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade. (Marley Belanger, 12/5)
Imagine you arrive in a new country and have a medical need, but you don鈥檛 speak the local language and don鈥檛 know how or where to find care. In recent weeks, thousands of migrants to the United States have found themselves in precisely that situation, after being transported from the southern border to communities across the country. (Linnea Windel, 12/6)
Congress is considering two measures that modernize tools the Food and Drug Administration uses to oversee two areas of its vast portfolio: diagnostic tests and cosmetics. While the stakes are different for each of these industries, the basic premise driving these measures is the same. (Scott Gottlieb and Mark B. McClellan, 12/5)
