Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Blacks Hospitalized Much More Than Whites During Omicron Surge In NY
Bloomberg: Covid Hospitalizations In NYC Saw Biggest Racial Gap During Omicron
Black New Yorkers were hospitalized at two times the rate of White New Yorkers during the winter omicron surge. It’s the widest disparity in hospitalizations seen in two years of the pandemic, according to the New York City Health Department. “This is a significant inequity — and a particularly alarming one — so far into the pandemic,” said Michelle Morse, NYC Health’s chief medical officer. And it came during a time when the dominant variant had a lower risk of hospitalization than its predecessor, delta. (Muller, 3/3)
And nursing facilities are still reeling from covid —
WUSF Public Media: Plight Of Nursing Home Residents In The Pandemic Has Some Families Taking Care Into Their Own Hands
Susy Bogdan didn’t plan on having her 91-year-old mother as a roommate. The family had paid thousands of dollars so that her mom could live comfortably in a retirement community that would transition her from independent living to skilled nursing care if she ever needed it. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and everything changed. Bogdan, 54, is one of many people who started taking care of their loved ones themselves as a result of COVID-19. A survey published in late 2020 from the collaborative Embracing Carers found 13% of respondents became unpaid caregivers for the first time during the pandemic. (Colombini, 3/3)
Health News Florida: COVID Separated Families From Loved Ones In Care Facilities. Lawmakers Don't Want It To Happen Again
When the coronavirus pandemic began back in early 2020, Mary Daniel went from visiting her husband nearly every day to being barred from seeing him. “On March the 11th, I went to see him as I do every single night and on the 12th they called me and said, 'you can’t come back,'” Daniel told a panel of House lawmakers Monday. “I panicked. I promised him the day that they told us he had Alzheimer’s that I wouldn’t leave his side, that I would be with him every single day and all the sudden I wasn’t going to be able to do that.” (McCarthy, 3/3)
In other news about the spread of the coronavirus —
Indianapolis Star: House Bill 1001: Gov. Holcomb Ends Indiana COVID Public Health Emergency
Gov. Eric Holcomb signed an executive order ending the COVID-19 public health emergency Thursday night after nearly two years, days before the emergency was poised to expire. The House approved a measure Thursday allowing for the continuation of enhanced Medicaid and food assistance benefits, as well as enabling children under age 12 to receive a COVID-19 vaccination outside a doctor's office. Previously those provisions were only allowed because of the public health emergency. Holcomb had requested all three provisions before he would commit to ending the emergency. (Lange, 3/3)
Indianapolis Star: Indiana COVID Patients' Vaccination Status To Be Tracked On Dashboard
Indiana employers who want to persuade their employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine now have another tool to help them do so. The Employers’ Forum of Indiana, a health care coalition, has a new dashboard that aims to track the number of vaccinated and unvaccinated people hospitalized with the virus. It compiles information from nearly 20 hospitals around the state that the health care facilities have made public that reveals the breakdown of vaccinated vs unvaccinated hospitalized patients. (Rudavsky, 3/4)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Fewer Than 500 Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19 For The First Time Since Midsummer
The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Wisconsin dropped below 500 Thursday for the first time since last August, according to data from the Wisconsin Hospital Association. The WHA reported 474 COVID-19 patients and 83 patients in intensive care. This is the lowest number of intensive care patients since the first week of August. Hospitalization totals have been in a steady decline since its record-breaking peak of 2,278 patients on Jan. 12. (Bentley, 3/3)
In covid research —
The New York Times: Covid Invades Cells In The Penis And Testicles Of Monkeys, Study Says
The coronavirus may infect tissue within the male genital tract, new research on rhesus macaques shows. The finding suggests that symptoms like erectile dysfunction reported by some Covid patients may be caused directly by the virus, not by inflammation or fever that often accompany the disease. The research demonstrated that the coronavirus infected the prostate, penis, testicles and surrounding blood vessels in three male rhesus macaques. The monkeys were examined with whole body scans specially designed to detect sites of infection. (Rabin, 3/1)
Bloomberg: Arthritis Drug Reduced Deaths From Covid in Study
Eli Lilly & Co. and Incyte Corp.’s rheumatoid arthritis drug baricitinib reduced the risk of death from Covid-19 in a large U.K. study, bolstering evidence that the class of inflammation-fighting medicines can help infected patients. Adding baricitinib to standard treatments lowered the risk of death among hospitalized Covid patients by 13%, according to results from the U.K. trial, called Recovery, in 8,156 people with the disease. Most of the patients also received steroids, and about one-quarter also got a different type of arthritis drug, Roche Holding AG’s Actemra. (Kresge, 3/3)
Fox News: COVID Infected Patients At Risk For 20 Types Of Heart And Vascular Disease: Study
People infected with COVID-19 are at risk of having a cardiovascular disease-related incident 30 days after having been infected by the virus, researchers showed in a recent report in the journal Nature Medicine. The report found those with COVID-19 are potentially susceptible to developing 20 different heart and vascular diseases including among others: heart failure, pericarditis, myocarditis, stroke, cerebrovascular disorders, and dysrhythmias. Even individuals who were not hospitalized with the infection were found to have developed more cardiovascular disease than those who were never infected, the study said. (McGorry, 3/3)
