Logistics knowledgeable Jeff Zients, who has headed the White Home covid-19 response group because the begin of the Biden administration, is stepping down and might be changed by standard public well being knowledgeable Dr. Ashish Jha, who will take a depart from his submit as dean of the College of Public Well being at Brown College. In the meantime, White Home officers are scrambling to determine the right way to get the funding they should proceed their covid management efforts now that the president has signed the massive spending invoice for the rest of the federal fiscal 12 months.
Within the states, the Texas Supreme Courtroom closed off the most recent effort to cease a legislation that has all however ended authorized abortion within the nation’s second-largest state since September. Different states are scrambling to repeat Texas’ novel legislation, even earlier than the Supreme Courtroom formally strikes to weaken or reverse Roe v. Wade, the 1973 precedent that assured the proper to authorized abortion nationwide.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg College of Public Well being and Politico, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Name, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.
Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:
- Covid restrictions are being dropped across the nation, however one other wave of the coronavirus threatens. Covid circumstances are spiking in lots of elements of the world, and wastewater testing within the US suggests there’s extra covid nonetheless circulating than many individuals appear to assume.
- The announcement of Jha to move the White Home covid response was met with cheers from many within the public well being neighborhood who fear the administration has not met the communications problem of coping with the virus.
- The Texas Supreme Courtroom has rejected a long-shot effort by abortion suppliers to dam a legislation that has successfully banned all abortions within the state after about six weeks of being pregnant. The Supreme Courtroom has indirectly dominated on the legislation, although it allowed it to take impact, and different states are attempting to repeat its distinctive enforcement mechanism, together with Idaho, the place legislators this week despatched the same invoice to the governor.
- The Senate Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions Committee permitted a sweeping invoice to remake parts of the federal public well being paperwork on a bipartisan vote of 20-2. The invoice consists of the formal creation of President Joe Biden’s proposal for an “Superior Analysis Initiatives Company for Well being,” or ARPA-H.
- Many questions stay to be answered, nevertheless, together with the place a lot of the funding would come from for the adjustments, whether or not ARPA-H would change into a part of the Nationwide Institutes of Well being or stay separate, and whether or not the total Senate and the Home would be capable to move the bipartisan compromise labored out within the HELP Committee.
- In one thing of a shock, the Senate by voice vote handed a invoice this week that may make daylight saving time everlasting. However whereas stopping the apply of adjusting the clocks twice a 12 months is standard, there’s much less settlement on whether or not the US ought to keep on customary time, which favors extra mild within the morning, or daylight time, which stretches the night mild.
Plus, for additional credit score, the panelists suggest their favourite well being coverage tales of the week they assume it’s best to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: KHN’s “‘American Prognosis’: A Fuller Moon Rising — Revised ‘Violence Towards Ladies Act’ Provides Hope,” hosted by Dr. Celine Gounder
Joanna Kenen: The Washington Put up’s “Illness Took My Brother. Our Well being-Care System Added to His Ordeal,” by Karen Tumulty
Sandhya Raman: The New York Instances’ “As a Disaster Hotline Grows, So Do Fears It Will not Be Prepared,” by Steve Eder
Alice Miranda Ollstein: Politico’s “Covid Chaos Fueled One other Public Well being Disaster: STDs,” by Alice Miranda Ollstein
Additionally mentioned on this week’s podcast:
New White Home covid-19 response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha on “What the Well being?,” Sept. 9, 2021
Freakonomics MD’s “Is Daylight Saving Time Hazardous to Your Well being?” by Bapu Jena
WUSF’s “Orange County’s Well being Director Has Been Reinstated. He Was on Go away After Vaccine E-mail to Workers,” by Joe Byrnes
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This text was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Household Basis. Kaiser Well being Information, an editorially unbiased information service, is a program of the Kaiser Household Basis, a nonpartisan well being care coverage analysis group unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente. |
