Programming notes: Morning Pulse will not be issued from Monday, August 29th through Monday, September 5th. We will return to our regular schedule on Tuesday, September 6th.
Access to abortion is crumbling — New trigger laws went into effect this week in Idaho, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas, nearly eliminating abortion across large swaths of the United States, POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein and Megan Messerly report. increase.
As of Thursday, abortion is outlawed in more than a dozen states, with limited exceptions. He added that two states have banned the procedure after fetal heart activity was detected around six weeks of gestation.
Other Republican-dominated states, including Indiana, South Carolina and West Virginia, are likely to see further declines in access in the coming months.
The newly enacted law lives up to its conservative promise to swiftly ban abortion in as many states as possible after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn it. Law vs Wade in june Many of the Southern and Plains states will effectively lose access to this procedure.
The law may also make access to non-abortion care, such as miscarriage and family planning, difficult.
Welcome to Friday Pulse — Today is Friday. Pulse comes to you from sunny LA. Here in his three cars on the road he has one car is a Tesla.Would you like to give the wheel to a self-driving car? Tell us your thoughts on self-driving cars, Elon Musk, news and tips [email protected] When [email protected].
First Impulse: Senators Want Better Monkeypox Data — Senator Cory Booker, DN.J., wrote today to HHS Director Xavier Becerra and CDC Director Rochelle Wallenski to remind federal health officials of the racial disparities in the national monkeypox response. to be closely monitored and addressed.
The letter, co-signed by 11 other senators, found that while black and Latino men are disproportionately affected by the monkeypox outbreak, so far more people have received the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine than white men. It appears that access to the .
The CDC also had to rely on incomplete state reporting of racial and ethnic data on monkeypox cases, giving the Biden administration an incomplete picture of the racial and ethnic dynamics in the current outbreak. It also mentions that it is not possible to grasp the
“Lack of racially and ethnically disaggregated data on both disease diagnosis and treatment. [monkeypox] It will exacerbate existing health disparities and cost vulnerable communities their lives,” wrote lawmakers.
The state needs more money now — The public health response to the monkeypox outbreak must be “honest and transparent” about the risks facing LGBTQ Americans, the North Carolina health secretary argued in POLITICO Magazine.
Rather than shy away from the communities it affects, Kody Kinsley says the nationwide response will target men who have sex with men, who make up the majority of monkeypox cases, and work with the MSM community. It says it needs to partner with local organizations that
He also says the federal government needs to give states more funding, primarily by allowing CDC Covid and FEMA disaster funds to be used for monkeypox responses. In doing so, states can mobilize the contact tracing and vaccine infrastructure built for the pandemic in the current outbreak.
Google tag abortion service — Google now explicitly identifies clinics that offer abortion services in search results and maps. When a user searches for nearby abortion clinics, the results are annotated with “offers abortions” or “may not offer abortions.” The change came after pressure from lawmakers and employees, Ruth reports.
In June, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan) wrote to Google asking the company to clearly show abortion clinics in search results and maps. did. The letter cites data from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which shows that searches for abortion clinics often mislead users, showing search results for pregnancy crisis centers that do not offer abortions. .
Last week, 650 Alphabet employees asked Google to stop showing its Crisis Center in abortion search results as part of a larger list of requests.
A Google spokesperson said these changes have been in place since the beginning of the year. The update has not yet been fully deployed. In that case, the search and map results will identify clinics that the company has verified to have abortion services available.
we are losing visibility — Scientists and vaccine companies are concerned about declining coronavirus genome sequencing rates, reports Helen Collis of POLITICO Europe.
what’s happening: Around the world, governments are reducing sequencing of positive Covid samples. This is partly because testing has dropped significantly over the summer, and partly because many authorities have moved to minimal sequencing requirements to cut costs.
Important reasons: Governments and public health agencies use sequences to monitor known epidemics and changes in them that may signal red flags to their efficacy or transmissibility. Reducing the genome sequencing of coronaviruses allows the virus to circulate with less visibility of emerging variants.
NYC Cops Ask SCOTUS to Stop VAX Order — NYPD detectives are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to suspend the city’s Covid vaccine mandate for city employees, reports POLITICO’s Max Jaeger.
More Anthony Marciano says New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ decision to exempt Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving and other athletes and performers from duty is an arbitrary rule He claims to have proved that
Marciano initially won a temporary injunction blocking the vaccine mandate in state court, but the city took the case to federal court, where a judge dismissed it. Marciano has appealed that decision to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and hopes the Supreme Court will reinstate the injunction while the appeal is pending.
Kaiser under scrutiny on mental health care — California health regulators are investigating complaints that Kaiser Permanente has been unable to schedule mental health appointments within limits set by state law, reports POLITICO’s Victoria Colliver.
The investigation was conducted during a strike by mental health workers from health maintenance organizations.
Due to the “extremely serious nature” of the allegations, the Department of Administrative Medicine said in a statement Wednesday that it “could cause immediate harm.”
Michigan Toxic Spill Requires Federal ‘Hammer’ — Recent spills of toxic chemicals into a popular Michigan river and an important source of drinking water for Ann Arbor have spurred calls for EPA intervention, reports Hannah Northey of E&E News. .
The state is investigating that Tribar Technologies Inc. recently released toxic hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen, into the Huron River.
The state issued a violation, revealing that workers at the Wixom, Michigan plant ignored the company’s wastewater treatment alarms 460 times over the course of about three hours the night of the spill.
But lawmakers and state officials investigating the leak said they were ready to involve federal officials, including the EPA, if they could force the company to provide information and enforce if necessary. .
Stat’s Usha Lee McFarling reports on General Brigham’s efforts to fight systemic racism.
The New Yorker explores why mortality rates rise for nursing home residents when a private equity firm acquires the facility they live in.
The Washington Post, in its ongoing series on Covid aid, reports on the fate of millions of dollars spent retraining veterans.
