Your Routine Checkup for Friday 3/11/22

The health news you should know about.

Mar 11, 2022

No More Mask Mandates For Planes And Trains? CDC Devising New COVID Guidelines — Another failure in an impressively long line of them. A move like this would put immunocompromised people and children too young to be vaccinated at a higher risk of infection. The kicker is we know masking works really well against infection. (Source: Associated Press)

The Current Reality Of COVID — A researcher explains that even mild infections will deal a significant blow to public health within the next decade. An indeterminable amount of the U.S. population will either die or become disabled. Those will be the long-term consequences of American policymakers choosing the economy over tighter coronavirus precautions. (Source: Twitter)

You Can Order Free Covid Tests From The Government Again — The White House announced on Monday that each household could order four more COVID tests through the Postal Service, bumping the total number of tests per address up to eight. Excellent news! More tests getting into people’s hands is a good thing! But for large families, I anticipate this will not be enough to accommodate them, which is unfortunate considering that the US Government has the money to make testing ubiquitous. (Source: NPR)

J&J’s Controversial Prison Testing Resurfaces In Baby Powder Lawsuits — This isn’t new information, but it provides insight into the disproportionate harm corporate bottom lines cause Black people. This type of racist injustice—and, more so, the everyday discrimination Black people face while navigating the medical system—makes it difficult to convince people that treatments, like vaccines, are beneficial. This is the history that clinicians and advocates are up against. (Source: Bloomberg)

Shackles and Solitary: Inside Louisiana’s Harshest Juvenile Lockup — Prisons are public health failures and have been for quite some time. It’s difficult to count all the instances of health violations committed by the Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice detailed in this piece. (Source: ProPublica, The Marshall Project, + NBC News)

North Carolina Hurricanes Linked To Increases In Gastrointestinal Illnesses In Marginalized Communities — A new study found an 11 percent increase in ER visits for gastrointestinal issues following two major hurricanes. The most considerable increase occurred among the elderly, Black Americans, and Indigenous Americans. It’s a collision of several major health disasters that have been haunting Eastern North Carolinians for decades: the health consequences of industry, the fallout from climate change, inequitable access to healthcare, and a legacy of environmental racism. (Source: Inside Climate News)

Patient Navigators Are Helping Deleware Tighten Racial Disparities In Cancer Deaths
- “Delaware's progress against cancer inequities has been slow and steady, and not without its challenges. The state's overall cancer death rate has gradually fallen from the second-highest among states in the 1990s to the 15th highest. Black men's improvements stand out: From the period of 2003-2007 to that of 2013-2017, the death rate from all cancers declined 26% for non-Hispanic Black men in Delaware, compared with a 15% decline for white men.” (Source: NPR)

Maternity wards are shuttering across the US during the pandemic
- “In hospitals that did not have a nearby facility, there was an increase in the number of out-of-hospital births — maybe planned but maybe not. It is a worrisome trend, since rural communities already have higher infant and maternal mortality rates. After an OB ward closed, preterm births also increased, Kozhimannil’s team’s research found, a metric linked to greater infant mortality.” (Source: Vox)

Will There Ever Be a 'Cure' for Addiction?
- “There are many, many things we could do to reduce the incidence and consequences of addiction, and to support people who struggle, that we’re not doing. It’s interesting to me, as a recovering addict, that we look to biomedical strategies rather than things like social support and help with the dentist. It’s a long, arduous, resource-intensive process, and I don’t think there will ever be a quick fix.” (Source: Gizmodo)