Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Social Media May Be Able To Address Teen Mental Health; The Fight Over Abortion Rights
Adolescents face overwhelming mental health challenges. It is essential for public online spaces to be safe for teens to use. But the fear and focus on social media’s possible harms (on which the science is actually quite mixed) may prevent key decision- and policymakers from considering another possibility: social media holds unprecedented promise to support adolescent mental health, especially for teens facing barriers to treatment. (Jessica Schleider, 4/1)
The Supreme Court this week heard the first major challenge to abortion rights since it struck down Roe v. Wade two years ago — an attempt to severely limit access to mifepristone, the most commonly used abortion pill in the country, by a group of doctors who are morally opposed to the practice. (3/30)
There’s a lot to gain from a better scientific understanding of aging. Getting older is a risk factor for all the major killer diseases — heart disease, cancer and even severe Covid. And in the US, the ranks of people over 70 will swell within the coming years, creating a vast increase in the number of people suffering from dementia or other age-related problems. (F.D. Flam, 3/30)
Expanding access to health care has been a shared policy priority for Joe Biden and the former Democratic presidents who joined him onstage at a lucrative New York City fundraiser last night, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. But the politics of health care look very different for Biden than they did for his two predecessors. (3/29)
Healthcare is a human right. As the home of the nation’s largest municipal healthcare system, New York City works to honor and uplift that right every day. (Dr. Ted Long, 3/31)