Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Teens Should Be Able To Get Vaccinated If They Choose; Crisis Pregnancy Centers Should Be Illegal
Parents rightfully have oversight of most of their children’s healthcare. But as vaccine misinformation has spread in recent years, they don’t always act in their kids’ best interests. False information proliferating on social media has incorrectly linked vaccines to autism, infertility and even death. (8/19)
Thousands of fake abortion clinics, also known as crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), are operating across the country. These centers divert, delay, and deceive people seeking abortion care, exploiting their personal information while accepting millions of dollars in public funding. (Susannah Baruch, 8/22)
Since the landmark abortion decision Roe v. Wade was overturned on June 24, advocates, pregnant people and health care providers have been scrambling to navigate the legal landscape for abortion care, as nearly two dozen states have severely restricted or outright banned abortion health care. (Carli Pierson, 8/20)
The human toll of denying abortion to people who want or need one can be, and often is, appalling. The state legislatures racing to impose sweeping abortion bans, enabled by the conservative Supreme Court majority that overturned Roe v. Wade in June, have done so despite abundant research on the devastating impact these policies have on Americans’ well-being and livelihoods. (8/20)
This summer, I’ve played a new people-watching game while walking New York’s sweaty streets: What’s the story behind the mask? Who’s still adhering to covid-19 restrictions when we’ve cast off nearly all public health guidelines in this era of pandemic apathy? (Stacy Torres, 8/21)
We’ve been chasing the coronavirus since the pandemic began with vaccines and drugs, never getting ahead of it. In fact, well into its third year, COVID-19 is still causing often disabling symptoms among many people who were infected in early 2020. (Eric J. Topol, 8/21)
Just as we saw at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, monkeypox is a public health emergency disproportionately impacting communities of color. But this time, we must take immediate action on the lessons we learned from COVID-19 and use them to reduce the spread and suffering and make this time different. (Calvin O. Butts III, Al Sharpton, Reed Tuckerson, Donna Christensen and Debra Fraser-Howze, 8/19)
