At the height of the covid-19 pandemic, people often relied on telemedicine for doctor visits. Now, insurers are betting that some patients liked it enough to embrace new types of health coverage that encourages video visits — or outright insists on ... [Continue Reading]
Covid Testing, Turnaround Times Are Still Uneven This Far Into Pandemic
In one recent week, a New Yorker got a free covid-19 test in a jiffy, with results the next day, while a Coloradan had to shell out $50 for a test two cities from her hometown after a frantic round of pharmacy-hopping. A Montanan drove an hour each ... [Continue Reading]
6 Months to Live or Die: How Long Should an Alcoholic Liver Disease Patient Wait for a Transplant?
The night before Brian Gorzney planned to check into rehab for alcohol use, he began vomiting blood. First at 2 a.m. Then 5. And again at 11. When he arrived at the rehab facility in North Kansas City, Missouri, they sent him ... [Continue Reading]
Centros de órganos a pacientes de trasplantes: vacúnense contra covid o bajarán en la lista de espera
Un candidato a trasplante de riñón de Colorado que fue puesto en estado inactivo por no vacunarse contra covid-19 se ha convertido en el ejemplo más público de un debate que afecta a los más de 250 centros de trasplante de ... [Continue Reading]
Ser inmune a covid por haberlo tenido o estar vacunado, ¿es lo mismo?
El doctor Aaron Kheriaty, profesor de psiquiatría en la Universidad de California-Irvine, pensó que no necesitaba vacunarse contra covid porque había sufrido la enfermedad en julio de 2020. Por eso, en ... [Continue Reading]
Organ Centers to Transplant Patients: Get a Covid Shot or Move Down on Waitlist
A Colorado kidney transplant candidate who was bumped to inactive status for failing to get a covid-19 vaccine has become the most public example of an argument roiling the nation’s more than 250 organ transplant centers. ... [Continue Reading]
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Abortion Politics Front and Center
Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen on Acast. You can also listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Abortion, an issue that has mostly been simmering under the surface lately, ... [Continue Reading]
Solitary Confinement Condemns Many Prisoners to Long-Term Health Issues
ATLANTA — Sometimes, Pamela Winn isn’t sure how to connect with people, even those she loves, like her 9-month-old granddaughter. When the baby is in her arms, “I sit there quietly, and I don’t know what to say. What to do,” ... [Continue Reading]
Listen: California Banks on a Bold Treatment: Pay Drug Users to Stop Using
When Billy Lemon was trying to kick his methamphetamine addiction, he went to a drug treatment program at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation three times a week and peed in a cup. If it tested negative for meth, he got paid about $7. As the pandemic ... [Continue Reading]
Santa Cruz Health Officials Honored for Persevering in Covid Battle Against Tide of ‘Denialism’
Two California public health officials who pressed forward with aggressive measures to contain covid-19 even while enduring death threats and harassment will be honored with the 2021 PEN/Benenson Courage Award from PEN America, the group announced ... [Continue Reading]
A Colorado Town Is About as Vaccinated as It Can Get. Covid Still Isn’t Over There.
San Juan County, Colorado, can boast that 99.9% of its eligible population has received at least one dose of covid-19 vaccine, putting it in the top 10 counties in the nation, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and ... [Continue Reading]
Children and youth at low risk of severe acute COVID-19 during first part of pandemic
New research has found that children and youth may be at low risk of severe acute COVID-19, according to a study conducted during the first half of the pandemic and published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Researchers with the ... [Continue Reading]
Wildfire Smoke Is Here to Stay. Here’s How to Clean the Air Inside Your Home.
The fierce wildfires that broke out across much of the western United States this summer, spreading smoke across hundreds of miles, continue to pose a serious health hazard to millions. More are expected this fall. ... [Continue Reading]
The ‘Burn Scars’ of Wildfires Threaten the West’s Drinking Water
Colorado saw its worst fire season last year, with the three largest fires in state history and more than 600,000 acres burned. But some of the effects didn’t appear until this July, when heavy rain pushed sediment from damaged forests down ... [Continue Reading]
These Schools Use Weekly Testing to Keep Kids in Class — And Covid Out
On a recent Monday morning, a group of preschoolers filed into the gymnasium at Hillside School in the west Chicago suburbs. These 4- and 5-year-olds were the first of more than 200 students to get tested for the coronavirus that day — and every ... [Continue Reading]
California Moves on Climate Change, but Rejects Aggressive Cuts to Greenhouse Emissions
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As California trudges into another autumn marred by toxic wildfire smoke and drought-parched reservoirs, state lawmakers have cast climate change as a growing public health threat for the state’s 40 million residents. ... [Continue Reading]
Long-haul illness after last century’s flu pandemic
As some people affected with COVID-19 face lingering long-term effects, post-infectious symptoms were also seen in various countries after the 1918 flu pandemic, as described in a humanities article published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association ... [Continue Reading]
La máscara de tela, ¿es suficiente para proteger contra la variante delta?
En los últimos meses, algunas compañías aéreas europeas han prohibido el uso de máscaras de tela para controlar la propagación del coronavirus durante los vuelos, en favor de las quirúrgicas y los respiradores N95. ... [Continue Reading]
Ask KHN-PolitiFact: Is My Cloth Mask Good Enough to Face the Delta Variant?
In recent months, some European airlines have banned the use of cloth face coverings to control the spread of the coronavirus during air travel, instead favoring surgical masks — sometimes referred to as medical or disposable — and N95 ... [Continue Reading]
I Got a ‘Mild’ Breakthrough Case. Here’s What I Wish I’d Known.
The test results that hot day in early August shouldn’t have surprised me — all the symptoms were there. A few days earlier, fatigue had enveloped me like a weighted blanket. I chalked it up to my weekend of travel. Next, a headache clamped ... [Continue Reading]