Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Tariff War Ignores Impact Of Health Care Costs On Manufacturing Firms; How HIV Drug Came To Fruition
The Trump administration continues to pursue the most aggressive tariff policies since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. The intent of this trade war is to reshore a wide variety of American industries. Reshoring seeks to redress the economic harms that resulted from a systematic effort to move manufacturing to lower-cost labor markets abroad, a process that has been occurring for several decades. (Kevin A. Schulman and Wasan Kumar, 6/23)
By the mid-1990s, the AIDS epidemic had become a pandemic, with more than 3 million new HIV infections and more than 1 million AIDS-related deaths each year. A million children, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, had been orphaned by AIDS. The numbers just kept going up and up. (William Pao, 6/23)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of health and human services, is correct that reported autism rates have exploded in the last 30 years — they’ve increased roughly 60-fold — but he is dead wrong about the causes. I should know, because I am partly responsible for the explosion in rates. The rapid rise in autism cases is not because of vaccines or environmental toxins, but rather is the result of changes in the way that autism is defined and assessed — changes that I helped put into place. (Dr. Allen Frances, 6/23)
Rising food prices. Cuts to critical assistance programs. Lingering economic uncertainty. Together, these forces have created a perfect storm of heartache, further fueling the dramatic rise in food insecurity across the country. Here in Maryland, since the days of the COVID pandemic, one in three residents continues to struggle to afford basic necessities. (Carmen Del Guercio, 6/22)
When I finally got a new N95 mask after six months, I held the old one in my hands and realized how thin and frayed it had become. It was literally breaking down from months of sweat, breath, and tears. I had been breathing through something that was barely there. And I hadn’t noticed. I was too busy helping people survive. That’s what working through the pandemic was like. You didn’t have time to think about what was falling apart. You were too busy holding it up. (Abby Ehrhardt, 6/22)
