Healthcare & Policy News
Reporting on health care policy, insurance coverage, and federal health programs. Includes news updates and conservative commentary from The Daily Signal.
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- Opinion
New COVID-19 Tests Will Inform Our Endgame
Public health authorities are making life-and-death decisions. To make good decisions, federal and state policymakers must be able to understand the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that requires solid data. The truth: Medical experts have been working in the dark. They do not have an accurate picture of how many people have the virus…Amy Anderson -
- Opinion
After COVID-19, 4 Ways the US Can Put Pressure on China
Even before COVID-19 cases spiked in the U.S., members of Congress were drafting legislation to punish China. Odds are the pandemic won’t be the great turning point in Sino-American relations that some anticipate. But don’t expect Washington to ease the pressure on Beijing. That will continue so long as the regime persists in its destabilizing…James Carafano -
- Opinion
Will Coronavirus Change What We Value?
In the story “A Christmas Carol,” when Charles Dickens received “visits” from all three ghosts in one night, he shouts so all can hear, “I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the past, the present, and the future. The spirits of all three…Nicole Russell -
- Opinion
Even in Pandemic, America Still the Global Leader
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has gone on the offensive to correct misapprehensions about American and Chinese leadership in the coronavirus crisis. China has ramped up a global propaganda battle, hoping to move into the leadership position. Yet, as a country that was the origin of the coronavirus, the cause of the global crisis, and…Helle Dale -
- Opinion
Middle East Coronavirus Data Sketchy, Leaving Populaces to Suffer
As the coronavirus continues to affect daily life around the world, one region that should be of particular concern for the United States is the Middle East. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, economic fragility, varying levels of stability, and civil wars have weakened the region’s ability to effectively deal with a mass outbreak. While there…Nicole Robinson -
- Opinion
Permanent Repeal of the Jones Act Would Be a Winning Response to COVID-19
A waiver of the century-old Merchant Marine Act, also known as the Jones Act, was said to be on the table at Friday’s White House meeting between President Donald Trump and U.S. oil producers. If legislation was passed to make such a waiver permanent, applying it to all shipments, not just oil, that would be…Patrick Tyrrell -
- Opinion
The Importance of Optimism Amid COVID-19 Crisis
“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.” (Proverbs 17:22 NLT) Everywhere you look—from newspaper headlines, to TV “alerts,” to those too-long White House briefings, to people wearing masks in public places, there is hardly any news that isn’t negative. Stories of people not getting the coronavirus, much less…Cal Thomas -
- News
Heritage Foundation Launches National Coronavirus Recovery Commission
The Heritage Foundation on Monday unveiled a new commission intended to “save lives and livelihoods” in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission “will examine the extraordinary public health crisis facing America and the steps needed to move prudently toward recovery,” the Washington-based think tank announced. The commission—online at CoronavirusCommission.com—will be spearheaded…Rachel del Guidice -
- News
5 Things to Know About This Anti-Malaria Drug’s Effect on COVID-19
The federal government has stockpiled 29 million pills of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as the best known way to treat active cases of COVID-19, and thousands of patients in New York will take it. But using the Food and Drug Administration-approved drug to treat COVID-19 has sparked an intense political controversy. President Donald Trump, who…Fred Lucas -
- News
China Swoops in to Help Ukraine Fight Coronavirus
KYIV, Ukraine—China has been front and center in helping Ukraine respond to its coronavirus outbreak, underscoring what some say is Beijing’s global gambit to exploit the pandemic for geopolitical gain and exonerate itself for allowing the disease to spread. “China is trying to shape the post-outbreak world, even as it has lied to the world,…Nolan Peterson -
- News
Researchers Lower Fatality Projections in Coronavirus Model Used by White House
The researchers whose model the White House has used to help guide its coronavirus response lowered their estimate Sunday for the number of Americans projected to die during the first wave of the pandemic. The model, from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, now projects 81,766 deaths in the United States…Chuck Ross -
- Opinion
When America Gets Coronavirus Under Control, Africa Will Need Our Help
We know too little about the new coronavirus to say how it will progress in Africa, but we know enough to realize it is likely to pummel the continent. As of April 6, Johns Hopkins University reported confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 51 of Africa’s 54 countries, with a total of over 9,400 cases. The…Joshua Meservey -
- Opinion
Second Amendment Rights During Coronavirus Pandemic
States all over America are mandating that nonessential businesses close, which is forcing lawmakers to decide which businesses should be deemed “essential.” In states such as New York and Massachusetts, gun stores already have been told to close their doors. In Texas, on the other hand, the attorney general has said gun stores may remain…Virginia Allen -
- News
Ahead of COVID-19 ‘Peak,’ Trump Touts ‘Light at the End of the Tunnel’
President Donald Trump has warned that the week ahead could be the worst yet in the COVID-19 crisis, but he and other administration officials also shared a positive note Sunday, using terms such as “glimmers of progress” and “light at the end of the tunnel.” “In the days ahead. America will endure the peak of…Fred Lucas -
- Opinion
In Hiding COVID-19 at First, China Chose Reputation Over Saving Lives
For over a decade, China has conducted a broad campaign to reshape the international system into a new, post-American global order. In this effort, it is essential that China project an image of being supremely capable and powerful, thereby demonstrating that China—not Europe or the United States—is the best model for governance and economic development. The coronavirus pandemic undermines this…Brett Schaefer -
- Opinion
How Capitalism Is Helping US Defeat COVID-19
In times of crisis, Americans don’t look just to the government to save the day. In certain intellectual circles in the United States it’s become fashionable to decry free markets, laying every economic woe of any American at the feet of “late stage capitalism,” the buzzword used to decry any business practice that seems designed…Jarrett Stepman -
- Opinion
Asymptomatic Cases Complicate the Containment of Coronavirus
SARS-CoV-2, the biological pathogen that causes the COVID-19 disease, is a vicious virus. While much remains to be learned, the new coronavirus seems to be more infectious than the annual flu and possibly more deadly. The unbelievable daily growth in the global confirmed case count speaks for itself. Indeed, confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the…Brayden Helwig -
- Opinion
Don’t Expect Perfection in Government’s COVID-19 Treatment Statements
Scientists are working furiously to find a drug to treat the COVID-19 coronavirus. (See here, here, and here.) Currently, there’s no medical consensus as to what drug (if any) is best for patients. The result is that senior government officials, including governors, have started to get involved in the matter. They are acting under tremendous…Paul J. Larkin -
- News
For Mike Lindell, the Battle Against COVID-19 Is No Pillow Fight
Michael Lindell, the inventor and CEO of MyPillow, stood outside the White House on Monday as a guest during the daily coronavirus task force briefing, at which he announced that his company had begun mass production of face masks. The Chaska, Minnesota-based pillow giant has retooled 75% of its production toward making face masks to…Virginia Allen -
- News
CDC Now Recommending Face Masks, Trump Says
President Donald Trump said he wouldn’t be wearing a face mask to slow the spread of the new coronavirus even as he announced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now suggesting Americans do so. “I’m feeling good. I don’t know. Somehow sitting in the Oval Office behind that beautiful Resolute Desk, the great…Fred Lucas