Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump: Pandemic Office Isn't Needed; Biden Campaign Slams His Words
President Biden鈥檚 reelection campaign criticized former President Trump on Tuesday after Trump said he would get rid of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR). The OPPR was founded in聽2022 over failures in government response to the聽COVID聽pandemic. Trump聽said in a TIME interview聽on Monday that office isn鈥檛 necessary. (Robertson, 4/30)
吃瓜不打烊: WHO Overturns Dogma On Airborne Disease Spread. The CDC Might Not Act On It
The World Health Organization has issued a report that transforms how the world understands respiratory infections like covid-19, influenza, and measles. Motivated by grave missteps in the pandemic, the WHO convened about 50 experts in virology, epidemiology, aerosol science, and bioengineering, among other specialties, who spent two years poring through the evidence on how airborne viruses and bacteria spread. (Maxmen, 5/1)
Congressional Republicans are banking on a blockbuster hearing Wednesday on the origins of Covid-19 to show once and for all that U.S. scientists, working with a Chinese lab, caused a devastating pandemic. To counter the view of many scientists that Covid originated naturally among wild animals, the Republicans will rely on evidence uncovered by a tiny nonprofit in Oakland, California, led by a disciple of consumer activist Ralph Nader. (Paun, 4/30)
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to hear a case involving 39 military chaplains who say they continue to face recrimination for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons. In an announcement Monday of the cases the court has selected to hear next year, the justices denied the chaplains' petition to review last year's dismissal of the case by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. (Kime, 4/30)
Just 17 percent of Rhode Island residents have received the most recent COVID-19 vaccine, a number some officials want to see much higher. 鈥淚 was hoping we could come out of this with people viewing the COVID vaccines as something you do every year like the flu shot,鈥 state Senator Samuel D. Zurier, a Providence Democrat, said Monday. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 believe we are doing everything we can to achieve that goal.鈥 (Fitzpatrick, 4/30)
Today a new meta-analysis of six randomized controlled trials in聽JAMA Neurology聽finds no increase in seizures in the month following COVID vaccination. The study compared the incidence of new-onset seizures between the 63,521 vaccine and 54,919 placebo recipients involved in randomized controlled trials conducted in the last 4 years.聽In the vaccine group there were 9 seizure events reported, compared to 1 in the placebo group. (Soucheray, 4/30)
