Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
Each week, KHN finds longer stories for you to enjoy. This week’s selections include stories on omicron, cancer, writing a will, fitness trackers, Bob Dole, Donald Trump and more.
The Atlantic:
Our First Preview Of How Vaccines Will Work Against Omicron
And there it is, the first trickle of data to confirm it. In the eyes of vaccinated immune systems, Omicron looks like a big old weirdo—but also, a kind of familiar one. That’s the verdict served up by several preliminary studies and press releases out this week, describing how well antibodies, isolated from the blood of vaccinated people, recognize and sequester the new variant in a lab. The news is … well, pretty much the middling outcome that experts have been anticipating for weeks: a blunting of a certain type of immune protection, but not an obliteration. (Wu, 12/8)
The Washington Post:
The Uninsured Are Eager For Congress To Fill A Coverage Gap — Even For A Few Years
Since she was diagnosed with HIV in the 1990s, Deneen Robinson has worked as an advocate, promoting health, abortion rights and AIDS education for other Black women. But it was not until June, when her job as a policy director for a Dallas nonprofit organization was eliminated — leaving her with insurance premiums she no longer could pay — that Robinson discovered a gap she had never known existed. Unable to find work beyond a few hours a day as a friend’s caregiver, Robinson descended into poverty. In Texas, even that scanty income is too much for adults to qualify for Medicaid. But it is too little to make her eligible for a subsidized Affordable Care Act health plan. So with a worsening endocrine problem, she cannot afford to see the cardiologist she needs as her blood pressure has spiked, threatening her heart. “The irony is not lost,” Robinson said. “Now, I’m fighting to get the things I advocated for for everyone else.” (Goldstein, 12/8)
The New York Times:
In Chicago, A New Approach To Gay And Bisexual Men With Prostate Cancer
Matthew Curtin learned he had prostate cancer after a routine physical examination in October 2019, when test results indicated there was a problem. A biopsy confirmed the news, and doctors told him that surgery to remove his prostate was the best option. The surgery went well, and, two years later, there is no indication that the cancer has returned. But for Mr. Curtin, 66, diagnosis and surgery were only the beginning of a “clinical and psychological and emotional adventure” — one he felt that many urologists were not equipped to handle, because he was gay and the majority of doctors and their patients were not. (Kenny, 12/7)
The Washington Post:
One Woman’s Resolve To Beat Cancer During Covid
When Djohariah Singer was diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer two years ago, she fully expected to beat the disease — despite long odds. But the pandemic hit just a few months after her first surgery, to remove her reproductive organs. The cancer had spread throughout her body, complicating Singer’s battle to stay alive even as she endured debilitating chemo and further surgeries. Since the beginning of the pandemic, she has sheltered in place with her partner and teenage daughter at their home in Middletown, Md., venturing out only for her medical appointments and emergencies. (Carioti and Gowen, 12/8)
Yahoo:
An Ob-Gyn Asked Women How He Should Redesign His Office
On Sunday, urogynecologist Ryan Stewart, D.O., tweeted that he had the opportunity to redesign his new Indianapolis practice, Midwest Center for Pelvic Health, from scratch. In his tweet, he asked women and people who need gynecological care to suggest improvements for office design, from the waiting room to the exam table. NBCLX compiled 12 of the top suggestions, including stirrup warmers, size-inclusive gowns and equipment, and a patient-controlled thermostat for when you’re naked and afraid and also cold. (Reed, 12/8)
The Wall Street Journal:
Millennials, Feeling Their Mortality During Covid-19, Start Writing Their Wills
Millennials are finally embracing one of the cornerstones of adulthood by writing their wills. Lawyers and financial advisers are hearing more frequently from younger people who want to get their affairs in order should they die unexpectedly. Thirty-two percent of the adults under 35 who wrote a will said it was because of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a 2020 survey by online legal documents company LegalZoom. Caring.com, a senior-care referral service, said about 27% of 18- to 34-year-olds had a will in 2021, compared with 18% in 2019. (Dagher, 12/6)
The Washington Post:
Bob Dole’s World War II Heroism Ended His Medical, Athletic Ambitions
Bob Dole was an athlete. As a 6-foot-2 freshman at the University of Kansas, Dole had joined the track team, football team and — his favorite — the basketball team. His grades weren’t amazing, but still he planned to enroll in the pre-med program and become a doctor. After his athletic career, of course. Then Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Like millions of other young men, Dole signed up to serve in World War II. But what the future GOP leader, senator and presidential candidate had hoped would be a short detour on his life path turned out to change it forever. Dole, who died Sunday at the age of 98, was severely injured in a battle in Italy in the waning days of the war. In an instant, his athletic career and medical aspirations were finished. (Brockell, 12/5)
Also —
The New York Times:
Can An Athlete’s Blood Enhance Brainpower?
What if something in the blood of an athlete could boost the brainpower of someone who doesn’t or can’t exercise? Could a protein that gets amplified when people exercise help stave off symptoms of Alzheimer’s and other memory disorders? That’s the tantalizing prospect raised by a new study in which researchers injected sedentary mice with blood from mice that ran for miles on exercise wheels, and found that the sedentary mice then did better on tests of learning and memory. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, also found that the type of brain inflammation involved in Alzheimer’s and other neurological disorders was reduced in sedentary mice after they received their athletic counterparts’ blood. (Belluck, 12/8)
The Washington Post:
Certain Foods And Beverages Can Interact With Drugs
Pharmacist Danielle Hess often fields questions from patients about whether their medications will interact with other drugs they are taking. Rarely, however, do they ask if consuming specific foods or beverages can be risky, she says. But they should. “Certain foods and beverages can reduce, enhance or alter a drug’s absorption in the body, so you should talk to your health-care provider about whether to avoid these while on a given medication,” says Hess, an ambulatory-care pharmacy resident at the Mayo Clinic. These interactions can be complicated. Not only do consumers have to worry about what foods to abandon entirely, but they also need to keep track of which drugs need to be taken on an empty stomach and which should be combined with food. (Cimons, 12/5)
The Wall Street Journal:
Which Fitness Tracker Is Best For You? Apple Watch Vs. Fitbit Vs. Oura Vs. Garmin Vs. Whoop
I have two watches on my left wrist, another on my right arm, a ring on my finger and a sensor embedded in my bra. No one should ever wear this many fitness trackers simultaneously. But in this moment, I am letting the latest heart-rate-sensing, sleep-capturing, workout-recording wearables from Apple, Fitbit, Garmin, GRMN 0.77% Whoop and Oura capture all my data, to see which ones do the best job. Whether you are training for a race or trying to lose the Quarantine 15, a fitness tracker can provide a helpful motivational nudge. But choosing the right one depends on your preferred activities and health goals—and requires an understanding of what data is most useful to you. (Nguyen, 12/5)
And more details have emerged about former President Donald Trump’s battle with covid —
The New York Times:
Trump’s Blood Oxygen Level In Covid Bout Was Dangerously Low, Former Aide Says
President Donald J. Trump’s blood oxygen level sank to a precariously low level after he announced that he had tested positive for the coronavirus last year, according to a new book by Mark Meadows, his former chief of staff. The new details contradict Mr. Trump’s denials this year that his Covid bout was more dire than White House medical officials had acknowledged at the time. (Haberman and Weiland, 12/6)
The Washington Post:
Seven Days: Following Trump’s Reckless Coronavirus Trail
When he first learned he had tested positive for the coronavirus, President Donald Trump was already aboard Air Force One, en route to a massive rally in Middletown, Pa. With him on the plane that Saturday evening were dozens of people — senior aides, Air Force One personnel, junior staffers, journalists and other members of the large entourage typical for a presidential trip — all squeezed together in the recirculating air of a jetliner. (Parker and Dawsey, 12/5)
The Washington Post:
The Wide And Dangerous Gap Between Trump’s Covid Recommendations And His Treatments
There’s a telling scene in Mark Meadows’s new book about his time as Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff. It comes just after Meadows had pulled aside reporters to inform them that, despite the vague claims made by doctors from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center about the president’s coronavirus infection, Trump’s health was in bad shape. Meadows had asked to be unnamed in news reports, but he’d been caught on camera asking to do so. In other words, it wasn’t hard to figure out the source for the information — accurate information, but not what Trump wanted Americans to hear. “President Trump was not happy when he read the original anonymous quote, and he was even less happy when he found out that it was me, his chief of staff, who had let the press know what rough shape he was in,” Meadows writes. Trump called him in to his hospital room. “Although he didn’t have much to say about the incident,” Meadows says, “he pointed out that the stories were all about my comments” — what he says Trump called a “rookie mistake.” (Bump, 12/7)
