Latest KFF Health News Stories
Opinion writers weigh in on these pandemic topics and others.
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How Do We Exit The Shutdown? Hire An Army Of Public Health Workers
The pandemic has exposed massive cracks in the foundations of the U.S. public health system. Getting the country back to normal, experts say, will require a major investment in Public Health 101: training a corps of workers who can track people with the virus and prevent them from passing it to others.
Battling A Pandemic Across 4,750 Square Miles And 10 Million People
Los Angeles County’s health leader describes the struggle for data and resources in the coronavirus fight.
Biden’s Incremental Medicare Play For Bernie’s Backers
The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate unveils a proposal to lower the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to 60.
¿Cómo salir del aislamiento? Contratando una legión de trabajadores de salud pública
Autoridades en todo el país están tratando de descubrir cómo reanudar algo similar a la vida normal sin desencadenar una ola catastrófica de enfermedad y muerte.
Furor Erupts: Billions Going To Hospitals Based On Medicare Billings, Not COVID-19
In the first round of emergency relief, some states will get more than $300,000 per COVID-19 patient, while hard-hit New York gets just $12,000 per patient.
Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don’t have to.
Editorial pages focus on these health care topics and others.
Will Americans Warm Up To Robots In Place Of Workers Amid Threat Of Being Exposed To Virus?
Before the pandemic, automation had been gradually replacing human work in a range of jobs, but the pandemic could speed up that process as society sees the benefits of restructuring workplaces in ways that minimize close human contact. In other health and technology news: Alexa’s role in the pandemic, telemedicine use, and security concerns.
The state launched a new hotline, but families are still unable to obtain information about how many cases exist in individual nursing homes. And in many cases, they can’t get updates on parents. News on nursing homes is reported from California, Pennsylvania and Ohio, as well.
Time To Quit: Health Officials Sound New Alarms About Risky Habits Of Smoking, Vaping
A recent study has shown that people who smoke are twice as likely to have severe infections. Some health experts wonder if the numbers of young people impacted could be due to vaping habits. “I believe it is critically important for us to help people quit inhaling anything into their lungs that could be causing any type of inflammation, as the coronavirus will only find an inviting environment otherwise,” said Dr. Carolyn Dresler,
Chicago Hospital Built After 9/11 To Handle Mass Casualties Faces First Big Test
The Washington Post takes a look inside Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, which was designed to handle just such an event as the coronavirus outbreak. For example, instead of patients being held in a crowded waiting room, the ambulance bay has been transformed into a triage area that keeps potential patients separated. Other hospitals news focuses on the financial burden as well as the preparedness of the facilities.
Media outlets report on news from Ohio, District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, California, Louisiana, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and Georgia.
In January, after its first patient tested positive, the government set up a crisis team and tracked down those who had contact with the patient. They even identified a salt shaker she touched that others handled. Germany’s coronavirus death rate is among the lowest. Global news reports are from Iceland, England, China and other nations.
Some of the nation’s food banks and soup kitchens are having to suspend operations and find novel ways to get food to people where they need it. More food-supply news reports on infections spreading among poultry workers and grocery story workers.
‘Jails In This Country Are Petri Dishes’: Infections And Unrest Both Spread Fast In Crowded Prisons
News on how prisons in Washington state, Illinois, New York, Louisiana and Massachusetts.
Most Of Country Has Been Put On Hold, But Culture Wars March On
The fight over abortion has been exacerbated as some conservative state governments use the opportunity to limit the medical procedure as if it were elective. Meanwhile, a federal judge in Texas temporarily halts the state’s ban on abortions.
Humans Aren’t Built To Make Good Decisions During A Pandemic
When there is a lack of information, emotions can fill in the gaps. And when those emotions are miscalibrated, they can lead to bad judgment — or dangerous behavior. It doesn’t help that the virus is an invisible threat and has also become politicized. In other public health news: air pollution, religious celebrations, hand-shaking, racial disparities, how the virus spread, the millennial zeitgeist, comic relief, and more.
By Taking An Experimental Drug, Patients Are ‘Treating The Emotion’ Rather Than The Disease
“Many drugs we believed were fantastic ended up killing people,” said Dr. Andre Kalil, a principal investigator in the federal government’s clinical trial of drugs that may treat the coronavirus. “It is so hard to keep explaining that.” In recent days, as President Donald Trump touts an unproven treatment for coronavirus, Kalil has been haunted by outbreaks from the past when patients were given untested drugs and then died from them. The New York Times takes a look at the team’s efforts to find a scientifically sound treatment. Meanwhile, others scramble for a cure, as well.