Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: New Covid Booster Should Be Treated Like Yearly Flu Shot; Paxlovid Should Be Easier To Get
Federal health officials last week authorized a new coronavirus booster, the first time the vaccine formulation has been updated. This decision was not without controversy, but is the correct one that heralds a reset for how to manage covid-19. (Leana S. Wen, 9/6)
I knew right away that it was going to be bad. It was a hot, humid night 鈥 almost 90 degrees 鈥 but my body was freezing. Putting on a sweatshirt and diving under a blanket couldn鈥檛 warm me up. My head, on the other hand, was on fire. I had a temperature over 100 degrees and needed ice packs piled on my forehead to cool down. The coughing wouldn鈥檛 stop. (Matthew Fleischer, 9/4)
Imagine spending most of the day locked in a small windowless room. There is little to no natural light, no meaningful human interaction and nothing to break the monotony of being alone. No wonder Nelson Mandela described solitary confinement as 鈥渢he most forbidding aspect of prison life.鈥 This grotesque practice is a form of torture 鈥 one that is too common in the United States. (9/6)
COVID-19 has taken a toll on the workforce across U.S. industries, from hospitality to manufacturing to retail鈥攁nd healthcare is certainly no exception. Stress on the system, increased costs, labor shortages and escalated personal risk of illness created a perfect storm of higher burnout and lower resiliency among primary-care providers. (Rebecca Etz, 9/6)
When the two Republican senators from Mississippi cosponsor legislation with the two Democratic senators from California, something intriguing must be going on. What do these Republicans and Democrats agree on? That Medicare should be compelled to pay for liquid biopsies, which test for multiple cancers using a single vial of blood, even though no one is sure whether they work or not. (H. Gilbert Welch, 9/7)
Every time I read about clinical trials testing possible treatments for rare diseases, I think of my son, Ty, whose brief but successful foray into such a trial highlights their value and their devastating limitations. (Karen Quandt, 9/7)
