Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
California, Maine Mobilize To Shore Up Testing In Hard-Hit Areas
AP: 2 Of Maine's Hardest Hit Counties To Get Testing Help
A medical center that serves two of the hardest-hit counties in Maine is slated to receive a boost from the federal government to offer more coronavirus testing. Community Clinical Services in Lewiston has been awarded more than $320,000 to expand testing and training capacities, Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King said Monday. The center serves Androscoggin and Cumberland counties, which are two of the three hardest hit counties in the state of Maine in terms of caseload. (7/28)
Los Angeles Times: Newsom To Send 'Strike Teams' To Fight COVID-19 In Central Valley
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Latinos in the Central Valley have been disproportionately harmed by the spread of COVID-19, prompting the governor to send “strike teams” to eight counties while asking the California Legislature to approve $52 million to improve testing, tracing and isolation protocols in those regions. Newsom said the targeted approach on eight counties — San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings and Tulare, and Kern counties — comes as the state is seeing widening disparities in deaths and infections of Latinos statewide. Those increases are particularly felt in the Central Valley, where Latinos make up a higher percentage of residents. (Gutierrez, 7/27)
In related news —
NPR: With Testing Delays And Cases Surges, Contact Tracing Is Stymied In Some States
When the coronavirus pandemic began, public health experts had high hopes for the United States. After all, the U.S. literally invented the tactics that have been used for decades to quash outbreaks around the world: Quickly identify everyone who gets infected. Track down everyone exposed to the virus. Test everyone. Isolate the sick and quarantine the exposed to stop the virus from spreading. The hope was a wealthy country like the United States would deploy those tried-and-true measures to rapidly contain the virus — like quickly dousing every ember from a campfire to keep it from erupting into a forest fire. (Stein, 7/27)
The Wall Street Journal: Suffering From Covid For Months—And Battling Murky Test Results Too
Jenny Berz woke up on March 27 with a fever, headache and shortness of breath. Four months later she is still sick, struggling with fatigue, sinus pain, blurred vision, gastrointestinal issues, and pain and numbness in her hands. She loses her sense of smell every few days. Ms. Berz, a 50-year-old clinical psychologist in Brookline, Mass., believes she is suffering from long-term symptoms of Covid-19, and her primary care doctor does too. Her husband tested positive for Covid about a week after she fell ill. But the four antibody tests Ms. Berz has taken came back negative, as did a diagnostic test she took in the emergency room in late March. (Reddy, 7/27)
