Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Raw Pet Food Might Kick Off The Next Pandemic; 'MAHA Moms' Support What RFK Jr. Is Doing
The $6.3 trillion wellness industry thrives on distrust of science, glorifying 鈥渘atural鈥 alternatives, and fear-based marketing. The result? Pseudoscience that鈥檚 not just harming human health. It鈥檚 killing animals, too, specifically via H5N1 bird flu. (Andrea Love, 4/10)
As someone who finds Robert F. Kennedy Jr.鈥檚 anti-vaccine stances alarming and who adamantly opposed him becoming health and human services secretary, I have been unnerved by his popularity among a group with whom I identify: mothers. (Leana S. Wen, 4/9)
There are multiple drivers of the big employment gains in health care and social assistance, including federal decisions to expand health insurance coverage with the Children鈥檚 Health Insurance Program in 1997 and Affordable Care Act in 2010. But the near-doubling of the 65-and-older population from 31 million in 1990 to 59 million as of 2023 is one of the most obvious, with the number of home health care workers 鈥 who mostly care for the elderly 鈥 rising from 262,000 in 1990 to 1.9 million last month. (Justin Fox, 4/9)
The growing burden of documentation, clerical demands and administrative paperwork has become one of the most significant contributors to medical provider burnout. In an era where physicians and nurse practitioners spend nearly twice as much time on computers as they do with patients, technology is emerging as a tool reshaping that narrative. (Jonathan Woolverton, 4/9)
With Florida having one of the highest senior populations, there is a critical need for comprehensive hospice care. (Marvell Adams, Jr., 4/9)
Maintaining the prohibition of the religious exemption protects not only the child next door, but also every vulnerable child dependent on herd immunity. (Helena Weisskopf, 4/9)