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This week’s mass shooting of elementary school students in Texas (just 10 days after the racially motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo store, New York) has revived the debate on weapons in Washington, DC, and across the country. But political disagreements over guns and their respective roles in American society are unresolved as always.
Oklahoma, meanwhile, is becoming the first state to try to ban all abortions, while the nation awaits a Supreme Court ruling in a case it is expected to use to demolish landmarks. Roe v. Vade decision.
And on Capitol Hill, lawmakers are criticizing the FDA for dealing with a lack of infant formula, which has re-ignited the debate over whether food should be regulated by a special agency.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Joanne Kenen of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politics, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News and Rachana Pradhan of KHN.
Details from this week’s episode include:
- Although much of the nation is riveted by the May 24 shooting in Uvalde, Texas, thousands of Americans die each year in gun violence that does not make headlines. More than half of those deaths were suicides, and many others were the result of isolated shootings.
- Despite an epidemic of gun violence, U.S. gun regulation has declined in recent decades. Not only has the federal ban on assault weapons expired, but many states have set out to facilitate the purchase and possession of weapons.
- Since the shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in 1999, an entire generation has come of age with the prospect of violence affecting their schools. The oldest of these people send their own children to schools where shooting exercises are a fact of life.
- Texas officials said the Uvalde shootings showed a need for greater security in schools, but adding metal detectors and more guards did not necessarily make children feel safe, especially in communities where police may have reason to fear.
- At a congressional hearing this week, lawmakers condemned the FDA for its slow response to reports that the Abbott Baby Formula Factory in Michigan had extreme contamination problems and how it dealt with the consequences when that factory closed and the formula became scarce. This question indicates the difficulties in the FDA when it was trying to cope with the kovid pandemic, and it was also without a permanent leader. The Biden administration was slow to nominate anyone to head the agency; Dr. Robert Khalifa took the helm only earlier this year.
- Problems with infant formulas have revived the debate over whether food safety should be the responsibility of a new, separate agency, as the FDA is so busy solving problems with drugs and medical devices.
- This week’s report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that 1 in 5 adults who get covid will develop long-term problems that may include neurological problems and disorders of some organs. However, the study of long covids left many questions unanswered, including whether vaccination reduces the number of cases and how long the problems last.
- The large number of long-term cases of covid identified in the report suggests that there could be a significant increase in the population of people in need of disability services.
- While the country awaits the Supreme Court ‘s decision on the future of access to its 1973 abortion services. Roe v. Vade decisions, states continue to enact restrictive laws. The governor of Oklahoma signed a law this week banning abortion from the moment of fertilization. Some companies have pledged to help workers travel to get abortion services, but that could run counter to state efforts. Texas lawmakers say they want to prevent businesses from providing that benefit.
Also this week, Rovner interviewed Dr. Richard Baron, president and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine. Baron co-authored a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine on how the medical community should deal with doctors who spread medical misinformation on social media.
In addition, for added credit, panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week that they think you should also read:
Julie Rovner: Podcast “Strangerville” “Episode 203: Jacob”, Jessica and Justin Van Wayne
Joan Kennen: NBC News Podcast “Needle In / Tiffany Dover Is Dead *” Brandi Zadrozni
Ana Ednei: ProPublica-in “The plot for the maintenance of the meat packaging plant during COVID-19”, Michael Grabell
Rachana Pradhan: Washington Post “We ignore the main culprit behind the teen mental health crisis”, Heather Turjon and Julie Wright
Also discussed in this week’s podcast:
Wok.com “The School Shooting Generation Groves Up”, Marin Kogan
Stat’s “Viruses that were on hiatus during Covid have returned - and are behaving in unexpected ways,” Helen Branswell
“More than 1 in 5 Covid survivors in the United States may develop Covid for a long time, according to a New York Times CDC study, Pam Beluk
“Companies that help abortion workers could be the next target of Texas lawmakers if Roe v. Wade is overturned,” the Texas Tribune, Zach Despart
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