The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
21,961-21,980 of 113,136 results
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he was tested after developing mild symptoms and will still be working from self-isolation. Johnson is the first world leader to confirm a positive diagnosis.
Many Afghanistan residents are defying orders not to congregate during their holiday celebrations raising fears among government officials that the spread of the virus could create numbers of cases like those seen in Wuhan. “The nature of this society is a very close physical one,” said a migration official. “People touch one another a lot; they live in multigenerational families.” More global news comes from France, Italy, Japan, India, and China, as well.
The cases of three infected newborns raise concerns that the virus can be transmitted during pregnancy, but studies are still early. “Is it possible that SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted in utero? Yes, especially because virus nucleic acid has been detected in blood samples” from newborns, David Kimberlin and Sergio Stagno of the University of Alabama at Birmingham wrote. “Is it also possible that these results are erroneous? Absolutely.”
Media outlets go inside the overwhelmed emergency departments at New York City hospitals to show what doctors and other providers are dealing with day in and day out. “I have so many different fears,” said Dr. Sylvie de Souza. “That’s all we can do: just pray, stick together, encourage each other, not get paralyzed by fear." Meanwhile, across the country, California is carefully watching how New York City handles the surge, with expectations that the Golden State will see a similar number of cases in coming days and weeks.
The practice of injecting current patients with past patients' blood is a century-old. But it doesn't always prove successful.
The study shows the importance of doing carefully controlled research despite increasing anxiety over finding a treatment. Scientists say that doesn't mean the malaria drug doesn't work, but that people shouldn't be looking at it as a magical cure. Meanwhile, a conservative business group founded by a prolific Republican political donor is pressuring the White House to greenlight the treatment anyway.
Millions of Americans have lost jobs and potentially the health care coverage that went along with them. The Affordable Care Act may serve as a crucial safety net to the country during this turbulent time. While the Trump administration has chipped away at the health law over the years, it might need to adjust its mentality and support the very thing it railed against. In other news on the economic toll of the outbreak: a look at how the recession is just getting started, how the stimulus package won't mitigate all of the damage, a movement to get older Americans to work in the name of "patriotism," and more.
President Donald Trump has signaled his determination to reopen parts of the country in recent days, and the latest proposal would involve a targeted approach that would rely heavily on testing, which has been a weak spot for the country. But public health experts warn against lifting physical distancing restrictions, even in places that haven't had a surge of cases yet.
Government officials decided to offer the respirators to TSA, an agency whose workers have been hit hard by the outbreak. There are no plans to send them to hospitals who have been desperately asking for protective gear for their health care providers. Meanwhile, health care workers are resorting to making hand-sewn masks that do little to protect them from the coronavirus.
The White House had been planning to announce a venture that would lead to the production of as many as 80,000 ventilators. Then the bill came. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said he didn't believe hospitals need as many ventilators as they say they do, even as New York approved a risky policy of sharing the equipment between patients and New Jersey starts making plans on how to ration care.
While the pinprick blood test would solve the time and shortages issues that are hobbling the traditional method, some scientists say it’s unclear if the rapid tests provide accurate results. Public health experts have been adamant that efficient and wide-spread testing is crucial in the fight against the pandemic, but the U.S. stumbled in rolling out its testing response.
Nearly 86,000 cases have been confirmed in the United States as of Friday morning, according to Johns Hopkins' data tracker, including 1,300 deaths. China had previously been leading the world in number of cases, but the United States passed that total on Thursday.
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Editorial pages express focus on the president's call to reopen the economy during the pandemic and other health issues.
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
While the media and public health officials have reported outbreaks at dozens of facilities, other information vital to families' and doctors' decisions about how to deal with older patients is going unreported. “That’s just not right. It’s not ethical. It’s not humane,” said John BaRoss, who pulled his mother out of a long-term care facility in West Orange, N.J. Also: At a nursing home in Newark, N.J., all 94 residents are presumed to have the virus.
Meanwhile, states and Congress are trying to make it easier for Americans who lose health coverage because their job has been affected by the outbreak to get insurance. And CMS withdrew its proposed rule to crackdown on state Medicaid eligibility.
During the height of the opioid epidemic, Walmart kept filling suspicious prescriptions despite protests from its own pharmacists. Justice Department prosecutors were prepared to file criminal indictments against the company, ProPublica found in its investigation. Walmart executives escalated concerns to political appointees at the agency though, who then ordered attorneys to stand down. In other news, PBS NewsHour reports on the difficulties of pain management in the coronavirus era.
The organizations argue eliminating the procedures will free up medical equipment and spaces and request emergency funds not be directed to providers. In Texas, abortion providers filed a lawsuit over a recently enacted ban on abortions.
Spanish soldiers who were sent to disinfect nursing homes found people “completely abandoned, or even dead, in their beds.” The struggle to protect the elderly populations--which have the highest mortality rates from the virus--have been a common thread throughout all the countries hardest hit by the outbreak. In other global news: China's propaganda machine, the economic freeze in Europe, military enforcement, and Vietnamese quarantine camps.
© 2026 KFF