Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
As Most Surgeries Are Put On Hold, Organ Transplants See Steep Drop In New York, Northeast
The volume of organ transplants across New York state has dropped precipitously with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, falling to 23 total organ transplants during April from an average of 220 transplants, according to an official for one of the state’s nonprofit transplant organizations. Hundreds of transplant recipients have contracted coronavirus, and at least 200 were hospitalized in the past week, according to Samantha Delair, the executive director of the New York Center for Liver Transplantation, who shared the data during a recent online seminar for peers in the organ-transplant community. (West, 4/20)
The new coronavirus pandemic is fueling anti-Semitic sentiment, Israeli researchers said Monday, as messages online and elsewhere falsely blame Jews for the spread of the disease and the ensuing economic impact. Researchers from the Kantor Center at Tel Aviv University, which released its annual assessment of global anti-Semitism Monday, said the virus that causes the Covid-19 illness had revived centuries-old habits of faulting Jews for things that go wrong, such as natural disasters, plagues, world wars and economic crises. (Schwartz, 4/20)
With less than three weeks to go until her baby was due, Aziza Hasanova packed her bags and prepared for what she expected to be a relatively smooth delivery at a Brooklyn outpost of one of New York City’s leading hospitals. But as the coronavirus pandemic swept across the city, all her planning was suddenly thrown into disarray. When she was 38 weeks pregnant, the hospital, N.Y.U. Langone in Brooklyn, canceled her last checkup, and Ms. Hasanova said a clerk at the hospital discouraged her from coming in because of the risks of being exposed to the surging number of patients infected with coronavirus. (Freytas-Tamura, 4/21)
Daily stress and worry plague a majority of American adults — 60 percent, according to a new nationwide Gallup poll, conducted from March 21 to April 5. The finding represents what Gallup describes as an “unprecedented” increase in the number of anxious Americans, a statistic that it says generally shows little change over time. (Searing, 4/20)
Many Americans are spending a lot more time with their partners these days. And some of those relationships are being tested by the inevitable "pressure-cooker" moments that come with weeks of being confined to the home in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus. (Greene, 4/21)
Earth Day on Wednesday is a celebration of the planet but it’s also a warning that the coronavirus crisis isn’t the only threat to the survival of humanity. The world is so focused on the COVID-19 pandemic that many people ignore the devastating consequences of climate change. President Trump’s hesitation to aggressively fight the pandemic is symptomatic of his refusal to confront climate change. (Brad Bannon, 4/20)
Almost half of Americans lived in areas with unhealthy pollution levels between 2016 and 2018, according to an analysis published Tuesday. The American Lung Association’s “State of the Air” report found that about 45.8 percent of the population, or about 150 million Americans, lived in places with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution between 2016 and 2018. (Frazin, 4/21)
