It’s a familiar moment. The kids want their cereal and the coffee’s brewing, but you’re out of milk. No problem, you think — the corner store is just a couple of minutes away. But if you have COVID-19 or have been exposed to the ... [Continue Reading]
Dying Young: The Health Care Workers in Their 20s Killed by COVID-19
Jasmine Obra believed that if it wasn’t for her brother Joshua, she wouldn’t exist. When 7-year-old Josh realized that his parents weren’t going to live forever, he asked for a sibling so he would never be alone. By spring 2020, at ... [Continue Reading]
Listen: Will Telemedicine Outlast the Pandemic?
Julie Rovner, KHN’s chief Washington correspondent, on Tuesday joined WDET’s “Detroit Today” host Stephen Henderson and Dr. George Kipa, the deputy chief medical officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, to talk about the ... [Continue Reading]
Nurses and Doctors Sick With COVID Feel Pressured to Get Back to Work
The first call in early April was from the testing center, informing the nurse she was positive for COVID-19 and should quarantine for two weeks. The second call, less than 20 minutes later, was from her employer, as the hospital informed her she ... [Continue Reading]
Behind The Byline: The Count — And the Toll
Although the coronavirus pandemic shut down many organizations and businesses across the nation, KHN has never been busier ― and health coverage has never been more vital. We’ve revamped our Behind the Byline YouTube series and brought it to ... [Continue Reading]
Business Is Booming for Dialysis Giant Fresenius. It Took a $137M Bailout Anyway.
As the coronavirus pandemic paralyzed most nonemergency medical practices this spring, the dialysis business, vital to the survival of patients with kidney disease, rolled ahead and in some cases grew. Yet when the Trump administration sent billions ... [Continue Reading]
En áreas rurales de Missouri, latinos aprenden a contener y hacer frente al coronavirus
Francisco Bonilla es pastor en Carthage, Missouri, y atiende las necesidades espirituales de la creciente comunidad latina de esa ciudad. También es una personalidad de los medios de comunicación, que expande su voz más allá de ... [Continue Reading]
Must-Reads of the Week
Hi, I’m back with a revamped Friday Breeze, tackling a few hot health care topics of the week and some news you may have missed. Here’s what the Breeze blew in this week, in these dog days of our COVID-constrained, socially distant ... [Continue Reading]
Test Sites Quickly Attract Thousands for COVID-19 Vaccine Study
Dr. Eric Coe jumped at the chance to help test a COVID-19 vaccine. At his urging, so did his girlfriend, his son and his daughter-in-law. All received shots last week at a clinical research site in central Florida. “My main purpose in doing ... [Continue Reading]
In Rural Missouri, Latinos Learn to Contain and Cope With the Coronavirus
Francisco Bonilla is a pastor in Carthage, Missouri, tending to the spiritual needs of the town’s growing Latino community. He’s also a media personality, broadcasting his voice far beyond the walls of Casa de Sanidad. Bonilla runs a ... [Continue Reading]
America’s Obesity Epidemic Threatens Effectiveness of Any COVID Vaccine
For a world crippled by the coronavirus, salvation hinges on a vaccine. But in the United States, where at least 4.6 million people have been infected and nearly 155,000 have died, the promise of that vaccine is hampered by a vexing epidemic that ... [Continue Reading]
Could Labs That Test Livestock Ease COVID Testing Backlog for People? Well … Maybe.
In a heated exchange late last month on CNN’s State of the Union, host Jake Tapper pressed Adm. Brett Giroir, the Health and Human Services assistant secretary who oversees COVID testing efforts for the Trump administration, on why the ... [Continue Reading]
Pandemic’s Bumps and Backlash Shape Montana Race Poised to Steer US Senate
MISSOULA, Mont. — Bradshaw Sumners watched throughout February as COVID-19 hot spots developed in major American cities, waiting to see when the coronavirus pandemic would manifest in Montana. When it finally did, life for the Livingston resident and ... [Continue Reading]
Putting children at the centre of COVID recovery efforts
By Emily Gruenwoldt If children are not at the centre of our country’s recovery efforts from the COVID-19 pandemic, we will have collectively failed as a nation. A costly mistake for which we will pay the price for many years to come. Since day one ... [Continue Reading]
Maryland County Pledges Investigation of Health Worker’s Coronavirus Death
Officials in Maryland’s Prince George’s County say they “will spare no time or expense” investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a veteran public health worker who died of COVID-19 after relatives and ... [Continue Reading]
Readers and Tweeters Defend Human — And Animal — Rights
Letters to the Editor is a periodic feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We edit for length and clarity and require full names. Standing Up for the Homeless Many aspects of your story on homeless camps being ... [Continue Reading]
When Green Means Stop: How Safety Messages Got So Muddled
When Marquita Burnett heard Philadelphia was moving to the “green” phase of reopening, she was confused. She was pretty sure the city had already earned a green designation from Pennsylvania’s governor (it had). The next thing she ... [Continue Reading]
Listen: NPR Interview About Less Lethal Weapons That Can Maim Or Kill
The streets in many U.S. cities have erupted with protests recently and police and federal officers have fired rubber bullets and other projectiles into crowds, injuring or even blinding some of the participants. This has been going on for decades, ... [Continue Reading]
Forced Sports Timeout Puts Squeeze on College Coffers, Scholarships and Towns
On college football Saturdays, tiny Clemson, South Carolina (pop. 17,000), turns into a city of 150,000 when fanatics pour into downtown and swarm Memorial Stadium, home of the Tigers. Some don’t even have a ticket to the game, but they come ... [Continue Reading]
Avoiding Care During the Pandemic Could Mean Life or Death
These days, Los Angeles acting teacher Deryn Warren balances her pain with her fear. She’s a bladder cancer patient who broke her wrist in November. She still needs physical therapy for her wrist, and she’s months late for a cancer ... [Continue Reading]
Get the Data: Hollowed-Out Public Health System Faces More Cuts Amid Virus
There is no comprehensive data on government public health spending and staffing in the U.S., and KHN and the Associated Press spent months gathering different datasets, each measuring a slightly different concept of “public health,” into ... [Continue Reading]
The best care for kids starts with advocating for a safe return to school
By Dr. Ronald Cohn The COVID-19 pandemic has caused us all to re-evaluate how and where we care for our patients. From ramping up virtual health visits to contingency planning for a surge of COVID-19 infections to the rapid deployment of assessment ... [Continue Reading]