Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Rapport Must Be Built To Assuage Vaccine Fears; Success Of Modern Health Care Led To Distrust
Americans are losing confidence in the safety of vaccines. According to a聽recent Gallup poll, 20% of adults believe they鈥檙e more dangerous than the diseases they鈥檙e intended to prevent.聽That鈥檚 up from just 6% in 2001. This growing skepticism is proving deadly. (Howard Dean, 3/17)
A measles outbreak in West Texas has claimed two lives, and President Trump鈥檚 secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is spreading false claims about the disease and the vaccines that nearly eliminated it. (Jessica Grose and Alexandra Sifferlin, 3/17)
The health care industry faces a critical security challenge. While organizations invest millions in advanced medical technologies, their approach to protecting sensitive data remains notably outdated. This isn鈥檛 merely a compliance issue; it鈥檚 a fundamental gap in implementing the hardened security architecture and advanced governance frameworks needed to protect vital medical information. The latest proposed amendments to HIPAA attempt to address these challenges, but without a foundation of robust security infrastructure, even the strongest regulations prove insufficient. (Patrick Spencer, 3/17)
As the world鈥檚 richest men slash American aid for the world鈥檚 poorest children, they insist that all is well. 鈥淣o one has died as a result of a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding,鈥 Elon Musk said. 鈥淣o one.鈥 That is not true. (Nicholas Kristof, 3/15)
In an instant, more than 1,000 patients at my health care clinic outside Nairobi lost access to lifesaving HIV treatments. Thousands more could no longer receive treatment for tuberculosis or contraception that prevents teenage pregnancies, hurting the well-being of our communities and threatening the progress we鈥檝e made in their medical care. (Jeffrey Okoro, 3/15)