Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Juul's Marketing; Abortions; And Hospitals In Wildfires
Out of a firestorm of controversy over teen nicotine use, Juul Labs emerged in January with a newly sober and adult marketing identity. Forget the fruit-flavored vaping pods, the former colorful ads populated with young models, the viral Instagram and Facebook posts. What the Silicon Valley e-cigarette giant is really about, its $10 million television ad campaign declares, is helping cigarette smokers shake their cigarette addictions and get healthy. (Annika Neklason, 6/20)
n the rural California county where I live, there鈥檚 a decent chance of a tree falling over onto my house (this has happened to several friends), an even better one of contracting the measles (we have one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country), and, until very recently, a zero percent chance of getting an abortion. The year I was 41, I needed two of them. I was no stranger to abortions; I鈥檇 had two before, but never in the same year. In fact, 30 percent of the times I had sex in 2011, I got pregnant. So there I was in November, having already aborted 50 percent of that year鈥檚 pregnancies, hoping to make it a nice round 100 percent. I just had to decide how. (Sarah Miller, 6/19)
While near-total abortion bans like those in Georgia and Alabama have captured a lot of attention, several states are moving in the opposite direction. (Anna North, 6/20)
Of all the wildfires that ravaged California in 2018, the Camp Fire was the deadliest. It tore through the mountain town of Paradise and killed at least 85 people, destroying the local Feather River Hospital along the way鈥攕o just as emergency services were trying to evacuate and tend to the injured, they also had to transport admitted patients. (Adam Rogers, 6/19)