Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: The Formula Shortage Isn't Over; Male Lawmakers Aren't Doing Their Jobs As Fathers
Remember the baby formula crisis? Public attention has largely moved on, but the U.S. supply shortage isn鈥檛 over 鈥 and the scarcity continues to distress parents and doctors struggling to feed vulnerable infants. (Alyssa Rosenberg, 9/21)
This week CNN confirmed what the optics have long suggested: Male lawmakers, many of them fathers, are most eager to punish women for having an abortion.One state representative in Texas, Bryan Slaton, introduced a bill in 2021 that would have made getting an abortion punishable by death, saying in part that 鈥渋t is time for Texas to protect the natural right to life.鈥 (LZ Granderson, 9/22)
President Joe Biden finally dared to say it on Sunday, declaring in an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" that the "pandemic is over." Various public-health eminences are saying he's wrong, but his comments recognize the reality of the disease at this stage and the public mood. The trouble is that his administration still hasn't lifted its official finding of a COVID public-health emergency. (9/21)
Monkeypox has been in the news a lot, and it鈥檚 being reported on as a 鈥済ay disease.鈥 Calling it this is not only inaccurate, but dangerous to folks both in and outside of the gay community. (Kimberly Adamski, 9/22)
In the face of innovations and advancements to better test, treat and prevent HIV, systemic racism continues to prevent Black-led community-based organizations, or CBOs, from accessing the funding and tools required to reach undersupported communities in areas of highest need. (Sista Yaa Simpson, 9/21)
The amazing images of the Cartwheel Galaxy captured by the James Webb Space Telescope this summer, and before them the spectacular images from the Hubble telescope, have amazed and inspired many people worldwide, who now look to NASA as a trusted federal agency. It hasn鈥檛 always enjoyed such strong support. (Judy Monroe, 9/22)