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WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION CONSIDERS PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY: The World Health Organization is convening a meeting Wednesday to discuss whether the deadly, pneumonia-like virus spreading in China constitutes an international emergency, a designation that would allow its top official to caution countries against implementing travel bans.
The WHO meeting announcement came soon after officials confirmed that the virus, which is believed to have originated from a fish and meat market in Wuhan, China, could be spread from person to person. On Tuesday, officials said transmissions were possibly ongoing. The top Chinese health official asked people living in Wuhan to consider staying put in the city and suggested others not travel there. In all, more than 200 people have been infected and at least six have died. At least two people who had not traveled to Wuhan got the virus from family members who had been there, and 14 healthcare workers have been infected.
There’s still a lot officials don’t know about the virus, including whether the first transmission originated from a dead animal at the market. Healthcare journalist Maggie Fox has a good lookback at similar viruses — including SARS, MERS, and bird flu — to show why the latest outbreak is so alarming.
But the announcement that the virus is contagious between people will stoke fears for travelers, who will be trapped on airplanes or trains for hours, potentially next to people who are infected. Plus, the spread of the illness has landed at a perilous time: More than 3 billion trips are expected starting this weekend as people in China head to their hometowns to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
In the U.S., screening, through taking travelers’ temperatures, is already underway for people flying into three major airports. But health officials tend to push back on the proposal of travel bans because they’ve been shown not to work. Countries who know they’ll be isolated won’t report cases of contagion, causing viruses to spread and making the problem worse. (Recall that Donald Trump repeatedly urged a ban on travel for people infected with Ebola before he became president.)
The designation “public health emergency of international concern” (or PHEIC) gives WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus temporary power to recommend countries not implement any travel or trade bans. In the end, however, it’s really up to that country to decide what to do.
Plus, the PHEIC designation has other provisions. It can help bring in additional funding and aid efforts from other countries and improve reporting of cases elsewhere. There’s already such a declaration underway in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is fighting an Ebola outbreak.
Good morning and welcome to the Washington Examiner’s Daily on Healthcare! This newsletter is written by senior healthcare reporter Kimberly Leonard (@LeonardKL) and healthcare reporter Cassidy Morrison (@CassMorrison94). You can reach us with tips, calendar items, or suggestions at [email protected]. If someone forwarded you this email and you’d like to receive it regularly, you can subscribe here.
SUPREME COURT WON’T REVIEW OBAMACARE BEFORE ELECTION DAY: The justices on Tuesday morning declined to take up Texas v. Azar, pushing the fate of Obamacare far past election day. The decision takes pressure off Republicans and the Trump administration to come up with a backup proposal to the healthcare law and will make it harder for Democrats to campaign on rescuing Obamacare because the threat that it will be wiped out is less immediate.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD ENDORSES SUSAN COLLINS RIVAL: In the Senate, Susan Collins is one of very few Republicans to support abortion rights, but on Tuesday Planned Parenthood announced that this election it would be supporting her Democratic rival, Sara Gideon, speaker of the Maine House of Representatives. Collins lost the support of Planned Parenthood over her vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. This week she is once again a highly watched centrist amid the impeachment trial.
WHEN CAMPAIGNING ON HEALTHCARE, VAGUENESS IS THE SMART POLITICAL MOVE: Journalists and rivals frequently press candidates to break down how they would fulfill their promises, including how they’d fund their visions, but voters don’t appear to punish candidates who are keen on their stances while light on specifics. Instead, in looking at how the 2020 primaries are playing out and how members of Congress unite behind a phrase rather than a specific policy proposal, it seems that ambiguity can actually be essential to political success.
“Specificity doesn’t pay because then it’s easy to criticize the details and the price tag,” said Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. “What a lot of politicians have found is that vagueness works just fine.”
Vagueness works for other areas of policymaking, but it can become particularly pronounced in healthcare, where proposed reforms tend to be expensive, have high stakes, and cause massive disruptions. Read more from Kimberly’s latest magazine piece.
THE CASE OF AN 11-MONTH-OLD GIRL ON LIFE SUPPORT DIVIDES RIGHT TO LIFE GROUPS: Groups that oppose abortion, euthanasia, and medically assisted suicide differ in opinion when it comes to taking 11-month-old Tinslee Lewis of Fort Worth, Texas, off life support. Tinslee’s doctors say that she is in constant pain and that her cardiac and pulmonary illnesses are incurable, but Tinslee’s mother, Trinity Lewis, and Texas Right to Life are fighting in court to keep Tinslee alive indefinitely until Trinity finds another hospital willing to treat her. Other “pro-life” groups, including the Texas Alliance for Life, believe the doctors have ethical authority to remove the ventilator and feeding tubes. Texans for Life says the support for keeping Tinslee alive, which doctors say is prolonging her suffering, is a form of “extremism.”
AMERICAN COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS ENDORSES ‘COVERAGE FOR ALL’: The best way to achieve universal health coverage is with a “single-payer” healthcare plan or a public option, the American College of Physicians said Monday evening in a policy pronouncement the group called a “seachange for the medical professions.” The ACP is the second-largest physician group in the U.S., right behind the American Medical Association, and represents over 150,000 doctors. The ACP’s Bob Doherty on Monday noted the positives and drawbacks of both systems on Twitter. “Single payer has much lower administrative costs and burdens on clinicians but would be more disruptive,” he said. “A public choice model is less disruptive and would achieve some administrative savings but not as much as single payer. #ACPVision4HealthCare.”
Increase payments for primary care: In the ACP’s recommendation, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the group calls for “increased investment in primary care.” Students working to become doctors are increasingly choosing to enter more lucrative careers in medicine rather than become primary care physicians, due in part to high student loan payments. The ACP said a sure way to reverse the shortage of primary care doctors entering the field is to modify payment policies to “recognize the value of primary care.”
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO GO AFTER ‘BIRTH TOURISM’: The Trump administration is only days away from announcing a plan to crack down on the number of noncitizens who come to the U.S. to have babies who will automatically be U.S. citizens, a practice called “birth tourism.”
BUTTIGIEG: TRUMP HARMS MENTAL HEALTH: Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said there is “no question” Trump harms the mental health of minority groups and transgender people. “When you believe the leader of your own country doesn’t see you or doesn’t want you to succeed, of course it is bad for your health,” he said.
The Rundown
NPR Patients want to die at home, but home hospice care can be tough on families
Boston Globe State seeks to rein in largely unregulated urgent care industry
The Oregonian Kaiser Permanente will donate $5.1 million to help homeless people with disabilities find stable housing in 2020
The Los Angeles Times Closing coal power plants has saved thousands of lives, study says
Calendar
TUESDAY | Jan. 21
House in recess and Senate in session.
THURSDAY | Jan. 23
1 p.m. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report and webinar on “Addressing the Dual Epidemic of Opioid Use Disorder and Infectious Diseases.” Details.
FRIDAY | Jan. 24
March for Life. Details.
