Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Pancreatic Cancer Vaccine Trials Are Promising; 'Sick Buildings' Need Upgraded Air Quality Systems
Results from a small study of a pancreatic vaccine are promising enough to merit cautious optimism. Researchers are figuring out how to train immune cells to see and destroy cancers — even devastating ones like pancreatic cancer. (Lisa Jarvis, 5/16)
The coronavirus pandemic taught Americans to wear good masks, avoid big crowds and test often to stop the spread of viral illness. Also crucial, but not fully understood early in the crisis, is that indoor air quality is key to reducing viral transmission. (5/15)
On Tuesday morning, I sat down at my desk to fill out a couple of online questionnaires that would determine whether I harbor negative feelings about fat people and obesity in general. (Robin Abcarian, 5/17)
Reports from jails across the country, from Rikers in New York to Santa Clara County’s Main Jail complex, in San Jose, Calif., have shown that mentally ill people are frequently mistreated. Families have filed lawsuits alleging that corrections officers have severely beaten mentally ill people, or let them starve or freeze to death. A 2014 internal investigation at Rikers found that almost 80 percent of the more than 100 prisoners who sustained serious injuries during altercations with corrections officers in 11 months were mentally ill. (Christopher Blackwell, 5/16)
Also —
I was refueling my car at a gas station near my D.C. office recently when a prompt appeared on the pump: It urged me to donate to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, one of the nation’s largest and wealthiest pediatric cancer charities, based in Memphis. (Laurie Strongin, 5/16)
The scenes playing out inside emergency departments and other hospital units throughout Minnesota are some of the most horrifying we have seen in our combined 60-plus years of working in health care. (Lewis Zeidner and Mary Beth Lardizabal, 5/16)
Could this be the year when America starts to shift away from the employer-sponsored health insurance model? (Sheldon Jacobson, 5/16)
Last week’s ending of the public health emergency, like the World Health Organization’s recent decree that COVID-19 was no longer a global health emergency, wasn’t marked by high-fives or tossing personal protective equipment in the air like mortarboards at a school graduation. (Mary Ellen Podmolik, 5/15)
