Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: MAHA Is Destroying Doctors' Trust In Government; Pill Penalty Provision Needs Fixing Now
For most of my colleagues and me, the C.D.C. and the N.I.H. were the medical Mount Olympus, the towering pillars of medical authority. Contrary to right-wing portrayals, these were not dictatorial authorities. These were earned authorities, comprising our best, brightest and most dedicated peers. (Danielle Ofri, 7/28)
Ever wonder why so many of the recent drug commercials are for injectable medicines, including life-saving drugs for cancer and diabetes? What happened to the much-simpler-to-take pills? Part of the problem is the 鈥減ill penalty鈥 that was written into the federal Inflation Reduction Act. (Paul Pescatello, 7/29)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was slammed recently for overhyping its disclosure of a set of rejection notices it had sent to drug companies. As reporters quickly discovered, most of the 鈥渞eleased鈥 200 complete response letters (CRLs) had been in the public domain for years, and the FDA had merely put them into a single downloadable folder. (Frank David, 7/29)
The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly advocates for food security in all households. They emphasize that 鈥渇ood insecurity manifests itself in鈥iopsychosocial outcomes, including health, education and economic prosperity.鈥 聽Children do not simply feel hungry when missing a meal. The United States Department of Agriculture reports that 13 million children in the United States (almost one in five, and one in six in Connecticut) live in food insecure households. (Caroline Brauner MD, 7/29)
As the geopolitical competition between the United States and China accelerates, national security is increasingly defined not just by missile silos or aircraft carriers 鈥 but by molecules, data, and the pace of biomedical innovation. (Andrew Barnhill and Abraham Sinay-Smith, 7/29)
My older brother has schizophrenia. He鈥檚 never believed he鈥檚 sick, refuses treatment, and has spent years bouncing between emergency rooms, jail cells, and the streets of Los Angeles. To the system, he鈥檚 鈥渦nhoused鈥 and 鈥渘oncompliant.鈥 We doctors call it anosognosic, pathologically unable to recognize his own illness. That isn鈥檛 defiance. It鈥檚 brain disease. (Shaheen E. Lakhan, 7/29)