CU ANSCHUTZ 360 PODCAST: Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH reflects on what he’s learned over the course of the pandemic — moments of optimism and profound disappointment. “Back in February, we had a meeting…on public health preparedness for medical and public health disasters. And we all sort of assumed that there would be a whole of government approach and that the nation would pull together around this, just like we do in wartime. Just like we do after a tsunami, just like we do after a hurricane, we all pull together. And the fact that that hasn't happened is just tragic. It's just tragic.”
LA TIMES: UCLA is not among the teams that have enhanced their contact tracing efforts through cellphone apps or wearable devices that track player movement. Christine Baugh, PhD, MPH, said electronic monitoring offers its own ethical dilemmas regarding privacy.
FAT STUDIES: Daniel Goldberg, JD, PhD collaborated with researchers from the UK, Iceland, and the US on this research article. The authors conclude, "As awareness of the inherent injustice and harmful nature of weight stigma reaches critical mass, the perceived political costs and obstacles may amend themselves toward legal reform."
BIOETHICS FOR THE PEOPLE PODCAST: Center Director Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH discussed a range of topics from equity issues to research prioritization and the intertwining of bioethics and humanities. "In the real world of medical practice, of public health practice, of research... the things where we see ethical issues arise; once you get to actual implementation of your careful ethical analysis, it's humanities work."
INEWSOURCE: Center Director Matthew Wynia said the official count kept by the public health office is important, but it “leads us to underestimate the total impact of certain types of disasters.” In September, Wynia and a team of researchers published a national report that Congress commissioned on how to measure a disaster’s death toll. “You can use that information to target resources to neighborhoods that are being very hard hit or other social groups that may be particularly hard hit. When we can figure out why people die, we can maybe intervene to prevent those deaths.”
GREELEY TRIBUNE: COVID-19 is now state’s fourth leading cause of death, but fatalities caused by ODs, heart disease and more also rose. “The pandemic has affected every aspect of our lives, including every aspect of our health care and our health,” said Center Director, Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH.
PHILIPPINE/CANADIAN INQUIRER: In June, the National Research Council set up an 18-member COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force charged with prioritizing vaccine projects and securing commercially available vaccines in Canada. The government declared that it was a “deliberate decision … to include individuals who may have a real or perceived … conflict of interest with respect to one or more proposals to be evaluated by the … task force.” The authors, including Lisa Bero, PhD, find that with Canadian lives on the line, trust has already been jeopardized, and trust in decisions about vaccines is going to be crucial. Both transparency and independence are needed, and task force chairs and most members should not have conflicts.
BOSTON GLOBE: Dr. Matthew Wynia said he worried the public was hearing “contradictory statements” that make “things even more uncertain than they need to be.” He called the information provided about the president’s health “confusing" and said it "suggests that he might be sicker than we’re being told — and that he might have been sick for longer than we’ve been told.”
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: The pandemic has stimulated public health research across the spectrum of prevention, detection, treatment, and recovery. Lisa Bero, PhD is launching a series of methods articles aimed at improving the relevance and rigor of systematic reviews on public health topics. Using case studies from the Cochrane Collaboration, the articles illustrate innovative methods to involve stakeholders, frame questions, and design evidence syntheses
THE NATION: The billionaire’s pandemic investments, like much of his work, remain a secret. Lisa Bero, PhD said authors need to provide details of their financial conflicts of interest, even if it means listing dozens of companies—which is not unheard of among authors in the New England Journal of Medicine.
NEW YORK TIMES: Throughout its 208-year history, the Journal has remained staunchly nonpartisan, until now. "Wow!," said Center Director Matthew Wynia, noting that the editorial which was signed by all 34 editors did not explicitly mention Mr. Biden, but it was clearly “an obvious call to replace the president.”
EMERGENCY MEDICINE NEWS: "There are things you could probably do to create a space designed for individuals showing up with psychiatric crisis, in the same way we clearly have specific spaces for trauma," commented Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH.
COLORADO TIMES RECORDER: Multiple events by 3rd Congressional District candidate Lauren Boebert have violated statewide public health recommendations on social distancing. “What’s she’s saying is, I’m a libertarian. Freedom is very important, and the government shouldn’t force us to do things for our own good. You can take every risk you want, but you’re not taking a risk when you are not wearing a mask, you are imposing a risk on others,” explained Center Director Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH.
Visiting Clinical Professor Warren Binford, JD, Ed.M, was recognized with the Justice Hans A. Linde Award by the Oregon chapter of the American Constitution Society, at a virtual award ceremony hosted by Willamette University on September 16th. Binford is an internationally recognized children’s rights scholar and advocate who is a frequent writer and speaker on a variety of children’s issues, including 21st century forms of child abuse, exploitation, and neglect.
JAMA Viewpoint: Authors Jean Abbott, Daniel Johnson and Matthew Wynia conclude that an ethical approach to pandemic surge planning requires recognizing and addressing threats of scarcity throughout the community. Failure to plan for adequate palliative and hospice care when a substantial increase in disease and death is expected is unconscionable, and it risks undermining patient-family trust, long-term emotional health, and the core values of society.
HEALTH AFFAIRS: Predicting prognosis is as old as medicine itself. Recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have led to algorithms that promise to answer one of life’s ultimate questions: When will I die? Co-author Matthew DeCamp, MD, PhD concludes that aligning care with patient priorities and avoiding biases should be the explicit aims of such work.
THE ATLANTIC: Amid a global pandemic, the NFL’s non-guaranteed contracts force players into a familiar choice: stay safe, or stay on the field. "If they cared about health and well-being as a primary concern, they would do things differently,” says Christine Baugh, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities.
POLITIFACT-NC: Center Director Matthew Wynia explained, "Any evidence of such deaths are likely to be anecdotal, and not necessarily something that’s documented. If your ICU is full, you’re going to try to make the best of it. You’re likely going to try to treat them in a step-down unit,” Wynia said. “You’re not going to find anyone who says we openly discussed this with the family and says ‘I’m sorry, we’re out of beds and ventilators."
CHALKBEAT: CBH Daniel Goldberg, JD, PhD, said he hopes schools recognize that if plans change, they need to ensure students are in comfortable environments that provide good food, internet and proper accommodations. Colleges and universities must take responsibility for closures, as well as their role in stopping the spread of the disease to other communities.
COLORADO SUN: "Vaccinating the population is important. Keeping the population united is more so. We tend to go with guidelines in the U.S.,” Center Director Matthew Wynia explained. “We’re reluctant to force people to do anything. But that does come with a cost that there will be a pretty high risk that there will be haves and have nots,”