Healthcare topics played a major role in politics in 2022, from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and a nationwide shortage of baby formula to an onslaught of respiratory viruses hitting children particularly hard in the fall.
Here are a few of the biggest healthcare stories in 2022:
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Abortion: Abortion was thrust into the political spotlight after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24 this year. The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion, giving states the power to determine limits on when a woman can terminate a pregnancy.
Since then, over a dozen states have adopted restrictive abortion laws, including Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Idaho. Some state abortion laws still remain held up in the courts and await judgments in the new year.
Meanwhile, others had taken steps to protect access to the procedure. In November, voters in Michigan, California, and Vermont opted to enshrine access to the procedure in their state constitutions.
Baby formula shortage: The country still faces a national shortage of baby formula that first began in February after Abbott issued a recall for powdered formulas manufactured at a plant in Sturgis, Michigan. The recall was issued after receiving complaints of infections due to Cronobacter sakazakii bacteria in four babies from September 2021 to January 2022.
At the peak of the shortage in May, out-of-stock rates for baby formula climbed to 70% on average. Since then, the Biden administration has been shipping bottles of formula since May from overseas under Operation Fly Formula as U.S. manufacturers get up to speed.
The ‘Triple-demic’: A surge in respiratory syncytial virus or RSV, the flu, and COVID-19 cases, particularly among children, has been putting a strain on children’s hospitals throughout the fall. In November, more than three-fourths of pediatric hospital beds across the country were full, according to data from the HHS.
Hospitals across the country reported that case numbers were considerably higher than in previous years.
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The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association urged the Biden administration in November to issue an emergency declaration in light of the strain on children’s hospitals, which would give hospitals more flexibility to manage the influx of patients and free up federal resources.
COVID-19: The Food and Drug Administration authorized updated boosters from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna that target both the original strain of the virus from 2020 and the omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 this year. So far, uptake for the vaccines has been slow, with only 11% of people ages 5 and older having received the new booster, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
