Trump Administration Roundup: President Signs ‘Right-To-Try’ Bill; Remaking Women’s Reproductive Health
And in more federal government news impacting Californians: CHIP rescissions explained; lessons learned from a mock pandemic excercise; FDA approves stroke diagnostic device; and the White House event on fitness.
The Associated Press:
Trump Signs Bill For Terminal Patients To Try Unproven Drugs
President Donald Trump signed legislation Wednesday aimed at helping people with deadly diseases try experimental treatments, calling it a “fundamental freedom” that will offer hope and save lives. Joined by families dealing with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig’s disease, and other diseases, Trump signed the so-called Right to Try bill and said he never understood why the issue had lagged for years and Congress hadn’t acted sooner. (Thomas, 5/30)
The Associated Press:
Trump Remaking Federal Policy On Women's Reproductive Health
Step by methodical step, the Trump administration is remaking government policy on reproductive health — moving to limit access to birth control and abortion and bolstering abstinence-only sex education. Social and religious conservatives praise the administration for promoting “a culture of life.” But women’s-rights activists and some medical experts view the multi-pronged changes as a dangerous ideological shift that could increase unintended pregnancies and abortions. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Crary, 5/30)
The Washington Post:
CHIP, CHIMPs And Trump’s Budget-Rescission Request: A Guide To The Debate
As we often remind readers, the most complicated issues are the most susceptible to manipulation by politicians. If the subject is complex, it’s easier to mislead. So here’s a guide to the rescission debate, which revolves around acronyms like CHIP and CHIMPs. (Kessler, 5/31)
The Washington Post:
This Mock Pandemic Killed 150 Million People. Next Time It Might Not Be A Drill.
The fictional outbreak kept getting worse. It had a 10 percent fatality rate, about the same as the SARS virus that traveled around the world in 2002-2003. Because the virus in the drill was new, no one had previous immunity to it, and it spread quickly in large cities. As it killed more than 100 million people globally, health-care systems collapsed, panic spread, the U.S. stock market crashed, and the president, members of Congress and the Supreme Court were incapacitated. “We didn’t want to have a Disney ending,” Inglesby said. “We wanted to have a plausible scenario. We did know it would be jarring.” (Sun, 5/30)
The Wall Street Journal:
New Stroke Technology To Identify Worst Cases Gets FDA Approval
The Food and Drug Administration Wednesday gave marketing clearance for a device that can potentially revamp stroke care by allowing paramedics in the field to diagnose severe strokes requiring specialized treatment. The Lucid Robotic System is aimed at one of the central dilemmas of modern neurology: How to quickly identify patients with the most severe strokes who could benefit from being taken immediately to hospitals that can perform a complex clot-removal procedure, potentially helping to avoid major disability. (Burton, 5/30)
The Washington Post:
Trump, Fast Food Lover And Exercise Avoider, Lectures Nation On Importance Of Fitness
It’s Sports and Fitness Day at the White House. That means President Trump — a man who has spoken out on the dangers of exercising and devours McDonald’s, KFC chicken, chocolate cake and double scoops of vanilla ice cream — will be lecturing the nation on the importance of staying fit. (Wan, 5/30)