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Good morning! Congrats all people, we made it to Friday. Tips, complaints, compliments? Rachel.roubein@washpost.com. 

Today’s version: On the cusp of 80, President Biden faces renewed questions on his age. Repeat coronavirus infections can nonetheless be harmful. But first … 

Messages about private freedom resonate with voters – together with in terms of abortion rights

In purple and pink states, abortion rights advocates have used a message that in different circumstances is perhaps a Republican slogan: Keep the federal government out of Americans’ non-public medical selections.

Over the summer season, activists deployed that argument in Kansas to resoundingly defeat an antiabortion modification. Michigan and Kentucky took a web page out of that very same playbook, incorporating it into their very own profitable campaigns to guard authorized abortion through the midterm elections.

The notion of non-public freedom is a salient message to extra conservative voters. Republicans embraced anti-government messages amid the pandemic, opposing vaccine mandates and lockdowns. A number of years earlier, they used language of presidency overreach in railing in opposition to Obamacare. This message can also be primed to focus on those that might personally oppose abortion.

“There are a lot of people that are in that middle group and are like, ‘I don’t think abortion is good, I would never get an abortion myself, but I also don’t think it’s the government’s place to make that decision,’” mentioned Rachel Sweet, who managed the abortion rights campaigns in each Kentucky and Kansas.

In conversations this week, that sentiment was echoed by a number of Michigan voters who both don’t have a celebration affiliation or who’re personally in opposition to abortion. All supported the modification to enshrine abortion rights into the state structure. But the message frustrates antiabortion advocates, who argue there’s one other issue to think about.

“Abortion is not like wisdom teeth removal,” mentioned Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of outstanding antiabortion group SBA Pro-Life America. “In every pregnancy there are two patients, mother and child, and at least one of them is not intended to leave the abortion appointment alive.”

The Michigan abortion rights marketing campaign:

From canvassing to digital adverts, right here’s a snapshot of how abortion rights teams deployed the non-public freedom message:

  • In Michigan: The Reproductive Freedom for All marketing campaign released an ad the place a person seems on the digital camera and says “let’s keep the government away from our doctors.” Its guidebook for canvassers contained this message as a speaking level volunteers can use when knocking on doorways. Other speaking factors included mentioning that the poll measure is aimed toward restoring Roe and would stop a 1931 near-total ban on abortion from going into impact.
  • In Kentucky: The Protect Kentucky Access campaign’s website leaned into this concept. “The rights of people to control their own personal, private medical decisions are under attack across the country — it’s no different in Kentucky. … Don’t let politicians restrict your freedom,” the webpage in regards to the marketing campaign states.
  • In Kansas: Field organizers for Kansans for Constitutional Freedom mentioned they used messaging methods that might work regardless of party affiliation, The Post’s Annie Gowen reported in August. A digital ad accommodates this identical message: “Kansans don’t want another government mandate,” a narrator says with out mentioning abortion.

Kansans for Constitutional Freedom:

Advocates and people concerned within the poll measure efforts stress that messages are tailor-made to the person state — and say in depth analysis is finished on what may work in several areas.

For occasion: Vermont voters handed a poll measure this week to enshrine abortion rights into the state’s structure, just like the modification in Michigan. The message largely targeted on restoring Roe v. Wade’s decades-old protections and reproductive freedom.

That’s in response to Kelly Hall, government director of the Fairness Project, which funds and organizes extra progressive state poll measure efforts throughout the nation. The group helped pay for and oversee message testing for Michigan and Vermont because the campaigns had been kicking into excessive gear this summer season.

The Vermont marketing campaign was “communicating more broadly to the entire electorate” fairly than tailoring messages to completely different audiences due to “both the size of the state and the media market and the nature of the electorate,” Hall mentioned.

In states like Michigan, there have been a number of core messages central to the marketing campaign, resembling trusting ladies and restoring Roe. But the thought of retaining the federal government out of individuals’s well being care was seemingly efficient at reaching independents and white males, she mentioned. 

There’s one more reason abortion rights teams concentrate on private rights, says Robert Blendon, a professor emeritus at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. It steers the dialog away from gestational age limits on the process, a fiercely divisive matter.

  • “The wrong message to get into is when is an abortion going to be available,” mentioned Blendon, a longtime Harvard pollster. “The issue that appeals is, a woman has the right to make the decision, it’s not the role of federal or state government to make my decision.”

Control of the Senate is down to a few states. Officials in Arizona and Nevada are counting outstanding ballots, and don’t anticipate to wrap up earlier than the weekend. Meanwhile, Georgia’s seat shall be determined in a Dec. 6 runoff.

In the House, the Republicans stay the favorites. But not huge ones, writes The Post’s Aaron Blake.

Voter turnout this week was the second highest of any midterm election since 1970.

An estimated 112.5 million voters forged ballots this 12 months, equating to about 47 p.c of eligible voters nationally. In 2018, roughly 50 p.c forged ballots, the best share since 1970, The Post’s Amy Wang and Scott Clement report.

White House prescriptions

Biden, turning 80, faces questions on his age as he weighs reelection

Amid financial and world crises final 12 months, President Biden’s aides began to grapple with a difficulty that’s extra private: the notion of the primary octogenarian within the Oval Office.

Biden turns 80 on Nov. 20, simply as he prepares to probably run for reelection. White House officers have been looking urgently and quietly for one of the best methods to fend off assaults and neutralize the difficulty of his age in voters’ minds, The Post’s Toluse Olorunnipa and Yasmeen Abutaleb report.

The nascent technique consists of showcasing Biden’s means to be fast on his toes, upping his journey and pointing to his accomplishments as proof he can do the job. Some allies are pushing the White House to do extra, resembling displaying clips of Biden operating conferences behind the scenes, the place they are saying his sharpness is extra obvious. 

Biden is conscious of, and generally irritated by, the difficulty, a number of aides advised Toluse and Yasmeen. He has mentioned it’s honest sport for individuals to ask about his age, however he seeks to downplay any issues by pointing to legislative wins and asking voters to “watch me.” 

Broad statistics can’t make clear explicit people. Yet well being specialists have mentioned age usually makes individuals extra weak to illnesses and it typically takes longer for an individual to get well from hospitalization.

Repeat coronavirus infections can nonetheless be harmful, research suggests

An article printed yesterday within the journal Nature Medicine discovered that sufferers with coronavirus reinfections tended to have extra issues in varied organ programs each throughout their preliminary sickness and long term, and they were more likely to be diagnosed with lengthy covid than individuals who didn’t get one other an infection, our colleague Ariana Eunjung Cha stories. The findings utilized no matter individuals’s vaccination standing or whether or not they had been boosted.

The research included a evaluation of the medical information of 5.8 million sufferers. A number of notable findings:

  • Compared with individuals who skilled just one an infection, those that had been reinfected had a twofold elevated threat of demise.
  • They had a threefold elevated threat of hospitalization, twofold elevated threat of lengthy covid, threefold improve in threat of coronary heart issues and blood clotting issues, and twofold elevated threat of fatigue.

But: Monica Gandhi, an infectious-diseases specialist on the University of California at San Francisco, mentioned it is very important remember the fact that analysis utilizing digital medical information “does not reliably predict a causal relationship.”

“Gandhi pointed to other studies, including one that took a look at 26 studies of reinfections that show they become less severe over time,” Ariana writes. “Another study from Qatar examined patients with different vaccination histories in more comprehensive ways and found that reinfections tend not to progress to severe, critical or fatal outcomes.”

Justice Sotomayor declines to grant emergency reduction in NYC lawsuit over vaccine mandate

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor declined an emergency request from a gaggle of public sector employees asking for reduction from a coronavirus vaccine mandate in New York City, the Hill stories.

The group, known as New Yorkers for Religious Liberty, consists of firefighters, lecturers, cops and sanitation officers. It argued that spiritual exemptions offered within the metropolis’s vaccine mandate for employees are granted on an arbitrary foundation and have pressured them to decide on between their jobs or taking the vaccine. They’re being represented by Alliance Defending Freedom.

Sotomayor, who oversees appeals from New York and sure different states, didn’t clarify her reasoning nor did she refer the case to the complete court docket. The Supreme Court has just lately stayed away from vaccine mandate circumstances, nevertheless it did block the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test requirement for giant employers whereas greenlighting a vaccine mandate for well being suppliers at services that get federal funds.

Home dialysis machines can be found, however there are limitations to widespread use

New York Times reporter Dawn MacKeen took a deep dive into the Tablo Hemodialysis System, a house dialysis product made by Outset Medical, which is the dimensions of a college-dorm fridge. Unlike the large machines first utilized in houses within the Sixties, this model incorporates a touch-screen and 3D animation. The FDA cleared Tablo for dwelling use in March 2020.

Because kidney dialysis is so pricey — and a whole lot of hundreds of Americans want it on a weekly foundation — the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is hoping to extend dwelling dialysis. About 14 p.c of dialysis sufferers deal with at dwelling and that quantity is rising, Dawn stories.

“The research on Tablo is promising, doctors say, but limited because of its small sample size and relatively short-term follow up,” she writes, including {that a} trial testing Tablo’s dwelling security and efficacy “found that 28 patients with end-stage kidney failure who completed the study had adequate removal of toxins on Tablo, and the device was deemed to be safe both at home and in clinic.”

Where does Dr. Oz — and his reputation — go from here? (By Karen Heller l The Washington Post)

Biogen’s new CEO, clear-eyed about company’s challenges, prepares to take the reins (By Matthew Herper, Adam Feuerstein and Jason Mast l Stat)

‘Impending Intergenerational Crisis’: Americans With Disabilities Lack Long-Term Care Plans (By Sam Whitehead l Kaiser Health News)

Thanks for studying! See y’all Monday.

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