Flu? Far Fewer Numbers Reported In Southern Hemisphere
In some countries where COVID measures are in place, the flu has all but disappeared. Other public health news is on restrooms, food poisoning, mental health, child care, adjunct professors and one more way doctors and hospitals pad medical bills.
The Wall Street Journal:
Covid-19 Measures Have All But Wiped Out The Flu In The Southern Hemisphere
For the past two months, as winter descended on Chile, infectious-disease specialist Claudia Cortés worked tirelessly to keep a wave of critically ill Covid-19 patients alive in the hospital where she works. At the same time, she worried about what would happen when the usual wave of influenza patients arrived. They never came. (Luhnow and Uribe, 7/22)
Stateline:
The Pandemic Has Closed Public Restrooms, And Many Have Nowhere To Go
The lack of restrooms has become an issue for delivery workers, taxi and ride-hailing drivers and others who make their living outside of a fixed office building. For the city’s homeless, it’s part of an ongoing problem that preceded COVID-19. (Brown, 7/23)
CIDRAP:
Salmonella Newport Outbreak Sickens 125 People In 15 States
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday reported an outbreak of Salmonella Newport infections that has sickened 125 people, 24 of them hospitalized, in 15 states as of Jul 20. The outbreak was first identified on Jul 10, when 13 people became ill from Salmonella Newport in three states. Infected people reported starting to feel sick from Jun 19 to Jul 7.No deaths have been reported in the outbreak, which has not been linked to a specific food, grocery store, or restaurant chain. But after analyzing specimens from those infected, investigators determined the bacteria causing the illnesses are closely related genetically, meaning that there is likely a common source of infection. (7/22)
The New York Times:
Play Therapy Can Help Kids Speak The Unspeakable
Dee Ray doesn’t learn how children feel by listening to their words. Ray, a researcher and counselor in Texas, learns by watching them play. She directs the Center for Play Therapy at the University of North Texas and often works in schools, where she sections off a 10 feet by 10 feet area in a classroom and fills the space with toys — a child sized kitchenette, puppets, a bop bag that a child who needs to work out some aggression can punch. (McClain, 7/21)
Politico:
How The Child Care Crisis Is Magnifying Racial Disparities
The collapse of the child care industry is hitting women of color the hardest, threatening to stoke racial and gender inequities and putting pressure on Congress to address the crisis in its new round of coronavirus aid. Black and Latina women are suffering a double-barreled blow as coronavirus-induced shutdowns batter the industry, since they dominate the ranks of child care providers and have long struggled to gain access to the services for their own kids. (Mueller, 7/21)
Kaiser Health News:
Adjunct Professors: Jobs Are Low On Pay And Health Benefits With High COVID Risk
David Chatfield feels he transitioned from an unstable career in graphic design to what is becoming an even more unpredictable one in academia. The 42-year-old teaches art history as an adjunct professor at two community colleges in Aurora and Fort Lupton, Colorado. He loves teaching, even when last semester the COVID-19 pandemic doubled his workload by forcing him to teach his seven classes online and figure out how to record and upload his lectures to YouTube. (Heredia Rodriguez, 7/23)
PBS NewsHour:
How Laid-Off Americans May ‘Fall Through The Cracks’ Of The Health Care System During COVID-19
The recession triggered by the coronavirus pandemic is one of the worst in modern American history, with more than 11 percent of workers unemployed as of the beginning of July, down from a peak of nearly 15 percent in April. In a country where many rely on their employer for health care coverage, the economic crisis has also left a significant number of Americans uninsured. According to a report released by the nonpartisan organization Families USA during the week of July 13, an estimated 5.4 million workers in the U.S. are uninsured because of job losses they experienced from February to May this year. Another recent study by the Commonwealth Fund found that among people who lost a job or were furloughed because of the pandemic, two out of five had health care through their job, and one out of five of those respondents said that they or a spouse or partner was now uninsured. (Vinopal, 7/22)
Kaiser Health News:
Ever Heard Of A Surgical Assistant? Meet A New Boost To Your Medical Bills
Izzy Benasso was playing a casual game of tennis with her father on a summer Saturday when she felt her knee pop. She had torn a meniscus, one of the friction-reducing pads in the knee, locking it in place at a 45-degree angle. Although she suspected she had torn something, the 21-year-old senior at the University of Colorado in Boulder had to endure an anxious weekend in July 2019 until she could get an MRI that Monday. (Hawryluk, 7/22)
