Av Gutman works for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and his work is mostly about policies. He was a very interesting and animated person, and clearly very knowledgeable & passionate about what he does. It was really cute when he got excited that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez retweeted him.

He talked about the moral hazard argument that is often brought up in conversations about harm reduction. Many people think that while Naloxone may save lives, it provides a safety net for users, and encourages risky and “immoral” behavior. It was interesting when Av compared the concept of morality with the U.S and Israel. Apparently in Israel, type 2 diabetes is considered to be an immoral disease, because it’s arguably preventable and reversible, and is caused by an individual’s lifestyle choices. Yet over here, while people argue that people with substance use disorder don’t deserve healthcare because their behaviors are a choice, we wouldn’t dare say that people don’t deserve insulin.

Av made the point that it’s very important in journalism to explain policy to through being accurate but try to avoid people falling right back into their own stigmatic way of thinking.