Perspectives: Masks Are Indispensable In The Pandemic Fight; Blood Plasma Might Be, Too
Opinion writers weigh in on covid restrictions, the fight against covid, abortion and racism.
Houston Chronicle:
Exhausted Nurses Ask Abbott To Reconsider Mask Mandate
As public health nurses working to educate our future nursing workforce and vaccinate Texans every day in our community, we have witnessed firsthand the enormous toll that the pandemic, and now the winter storm, has taken on health care professionals and other front-line workers. They have been forced to work in unsafe conditions, without proper PPE and even having to remove feces from toilets without running water. And, despite just learning that the U.S. would have enough vaccines for every adult who wants one in just three short months and that Houston was the first city in the United States to record all major COVID strains, Gov. Greg Abbott declared, “It is now time to reopen Texas 100 percent. ”The governor once again gambles with our safety, rescinding his single most effective pandemic policy: a statewide mask protocol. (Whitney Thurman and Karen Johnson, 3/8)
The Washington Post:
When States Unmask, We Know What Happens Next
A year ago this week, Mississippi recorded its first confirmed case of covid-19. The state’s new governor, Tate Reeves (R), seemed unconcerned: Rather than issue stay-at-home orders or other statewide mitigation measures, he took a family trip to Europe and urged Mississippians to trust in the “power of prayer. ”By the end of the month, the state had the highest hospitalization rate in the country. Then, in August, after thousands of cases and hundreds of deaths, Reeves issued a statewide mask mandate — only to lift it again less than two months later. As CNN’s Jake Tapper pointed out to Reeves, who appeared “State of the Union” on Sunday, “You said — quote — ‘it was a very turbulent summer, but we have come out on the other side.’ But then cases began to rise again. And you ultimately went through an even worse surge over the winter. More than 3,000 Mississippians lost their lives.” (James Downie, 3/7)
USA Today:
Blood Plasma May Be How To Fight COVID-19
What if there was a way to avoid the business shutdowns, long quarantines, and anxiety surrounding an exposure to or infection by COVID-19 before a vaccine becomes widespread? My colleagues and I at Johns Hopkins University are working on two clinical trials to answer that question. We’re investigating if a blood plasma transfusion containing high levels of antibodies to COVID-19, given early in illness, reduces the severity of the disease or even prevents people from developing an infection entirely. For those at high-risk, we believe this treatment could cut hospitalizations by half and prevent deaths. For those with milder cases, we believe that antibody-rich plasma would speed up recovery time and reduce the spread of the virus. Success for us is defined by lessening the impact of the pandemic, allowing us to resume more normal lives, and reducing the deaths and grief that COVID-19 is causing to families and communities across our country. (Dr. David Sullivan, 3/7)
Stat:
Making The Pharma Industry's Post-Covid Future Faster And Smarter
There’s nothing like a global pandemic to force a reimagining of one’s business. What it means for the pharmaceutical industry is that it can’t keep doing what it’s been doing for years. Covid-19 has exposed the industry’s antiquated sales model and revealed the limitations and opportunities of remote commerce. And the speed with which Covid-19 vaccines have been developed taught us that bringing therapies to market needn’t be a 10-year slog if you’re working in concert with government for the betterment of public health. (Saul Helman and David Weiss, 3/8)
Also —
USA Today:
Abortion Access: Biden, Stand Up Against Discriminatory Hyde Amendment
I walk into the room and greet my patient with a smile. Six months earlier, I delivered her first baby by cesarean section after a long labor. “How are you?” I ask. She assures me that she is doing fine, her daughter is thriving. She quickly takes out her phone and flips through a few recent photos. She smiles at me and tells me that she is just not ready for another baby. My patient is pregnant again and has made the decision to have an abortion. Just as I did when I delivered her daughter, I strive to hold a space of dignity and respect. I hold space for her and her emotions. I recognize that for her, she is making a difficult decision, but is doing so out of love and compassion. (Dr. Katherine Brown, 3/7)
The New York Times:
Declare Racism A Public Health Emergency
While Black and Latinx people make up only 13 and 18 percent of the U.S. population respectively, as of November they represent more than 50 percent of the country’s Covid-19 hospitalizations. In Los Angeles County, deaths among Latinx people have increased more than 1,000 percent since November, nearly triple the rate for white residents. Native Americans have been nearly twice as likely as white people to die from Covid-19. The virus has killed a disproportionate number of Filipino nurses. To bring desperately needed relief to the communities of color that have been ravaged by the pandemic because of the effects of structural racism, the Department of Health and Human Services should declare racism a public health emergency. There is momentum behind this idea. Across the country, cities and states have declared racism a public health crisis. The American Academy of Family Physicians has also called for the declaration of a public health emergency. Last year, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representatives Ayanna Pressley and Barbara Lee proposed a bill that would instruct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (C.D.C.) to create a center addressing the impact of racism on public health. The White House has created a Covid-19 health equity task force that will make recommendations to improve the federal government’s data on racial disparities and its response to them. (Abdullah Shihipar, 3/7)