Latest KFF Health News Stories
Coronavirus Cases As Early As December? Diagnosis Of French Patient Shakes Up Pandemic Chronology
A sample taken on December 27, 2019 from a French man presenting with pneumonia has since tested positive for COVID-19. That date is nearly a month before the disease was previously known to be circulating in France and a weeks earlier than Chinese authorities acknowledged the virus. In other news on mapping the outbreak, scientists debate if a more contagious strain of the disease exists.
Unused Crops, Hungry Masses: Food System’s Supply-And-Demand Drill Flipped Upside Down
The Los Angeles Times reports on how California food producers are scrambling to shore up the food supply at a time when many people are getting laid off and going hungry. More news on the food industry reports on the USDA’s plans to buy surplus food, Wendy’s removing some burgers from its menu and the toll on Tyson Foods’ workers, as well.
Conflicting Interests?: Using Smartphone Apps To Trace Outbreaks Could Tread On Privacy
Google and Apple developers say they are building these apps with privacy protections to keep stored data out of government and corporate hands and ease concerns about surveillance. In other tech news, Stat talked to industry execs about their revised plans to purchase health-tech services.
“The situation facing front-line physicians is dire,” three physician associations representing more than 260,000 doctors, wrote to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, at the end of April. Other news on health workers reports on a bill that would forgive student loans.
Keep Schools Closed: Researchers Warn About Children’s Potential Role In Transmitting COVID-19
While several studies aren’t definitive, researcher say it does appears children transmit the disease even when they don’t seem ill — and reopening schools would expose them to more people, making them more likely to spread infection. Other news on children’s health reports on new symptoms puzzling doctors.
What Is It About The Eighth Day, When Patients Can Take An Inexplicable Turn For The Worse?
Doctors are struggling to understand this sudden downturn in health that seems to frequently occur around the second week, a scenario referred to as “the second week crash.” In other public health news: how black Americans are disproportionately hit, patients describe symptoms in their own words, the promise of herd immunity and more.
A Small Pennsylvania Town Offers Snapshot Of Economic Toll, Political Tensions And Growing Fears
Manufacturing workers in Hazleton were exempted from Pennsylvania’s stay-at-home order. And then they started getting sick. In other news on the economic toll of the outbreak: recovery is likely to be long and bumpy; why stimulus funds were sent to dead Americans; kids who are U.S. citizens with undocumented parents struggle to get help; and more.
Republicans Shy Away From Trump’s Payroll Tax Cut, Dig In On Liability Protections For Companies
Lawmakers note that a payroll tax cut helps only those gainfully employed at a time when record numbers of Americans are filing jobless claims. Instead Republicans focus their attention on protecting businesses whose workers may get sick on the job. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice begins taking action against fraud in the small-business relief program. And some lawmakers call on leaders to provide tests to members.
States Making Deep Cuts To Medicaid Programs Just When Their Residents Need It Most
As states struggle not to collapse beneath the economic burden of the pandemic, they’re eyeing their Medicaid programs — often the largest budget item for a state — as a way to stanch the bleeding. Meanwhile, states are also asking Congress for help to cover astronomical unemployment claims.
‘People Dying Left And Right’: A Deep Look At Per Capita Deaths Reveal Rural Devastation
Even as southern and rural states push to reopen, infection rates and deaths climb in many of those regions. And it’s not just in cities. Rural areas, which are the least prepared to deal with the devastation, are starting to be hit hard, as well. Meanwhile, as Americans remain wary of returning to normal activities, state leaders start to find it’s not so easy to just “reopen.”
Wide-spread testing has long been the Achilles’ heel of the U.S. response efforts. Shortages, false negatives, and inaccurate kits have plagued efforts to provide quick and easy results to Americans. But scientists hope a new test can be the answer to that problem. In other testing news: antibody tests, false negatives and states’ ongoing efforts to ramp up screenings.
Vaccines Are Hurtling Through Development Process, But That Doesn’t Mean They’ll Be Ready By Fall
Amid talk about compressed development schedules and trials, public health experts are worried Americans are getting a false sense of optimism around just when they can expect a vaccine. Even if the vaccine is proven safe and effective in the fall, that doesn’t mean Americans are going to have access to it this year.
Gilead Reaches Out To Other Drug Companies As It Tries To Ramp Up Remdesivir Development
Gilead Sciences is predicting a surge of global demand for its experimental drug, which has been found in a drug trial to cut hospitalization stays for COVID-19 patients. But the drug company needs partners to ramp up to meet the predicted need. Meanwhile, in other pharmaceutical news, a CEO’s stock sales continue to raise questions and an experimental antibody treatment could be available by the fall.
Trump’s Pick To Oversee Stimulus Vows To Be Impartial: ‘If The President Removes Me, He Removes Me’
Brian Miller, who currently serves as a White House lawyer, was picked by President Donald Trump to oversee the distribution of the $2.2 trillion stimulus package passed by Congress last month. During his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, Miller said he can remain independent from political pressures, while Democrats voiced skepticism that Miller can serve as an impartial watchdog.
How Inexperienced Volunteers Tapped By Kushner Added To Confusion, Chaos Of Federal Response
The New York Times reports on how President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner recruited inexperienced, untrained people to help distribute the government’s supply of medical equipment and gear. Those volunteers were often told to prioritize assistance and tips from political allies of Trump.
Ousted Vaccine Official Accuses HHS Of Nepotism, Silencing His Complaints About Unproven Drug
Rick Bright, the ousted head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, has filed a formal whistleblower complaint alleging he was involuntarily transferred to a lower position because he raised concerns about the Trump administration’s COVID-19 response and about nepotism within HHS.
Trump Concedes There Will Possibly Be More Deaths, Suffering, But Continues To Push For Reopening
President Donald Trump spoke with ABC World News Tonight about the real, negative human cost in prioritizing an economic revival over a more cautious approach. “Will some people be affected? Yes. Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to get our country open and we have to get it open soon,” Trump said. Meanwhile, intelligence officials continue to push back against the idea that the coronavirus was released from a lab in China.
Trump Tours Mask Factory Without A Mask During First Big Trip In Months
President Donald Trump and other officials toured a Honeywell plant in Phoenix, Arizona with goggles as their only protective equipment. Mask-wearing has become a hot button political topic as some White House officials continue to buck the Trump administration’s own guidelines to wear them. Meanwhile, ICE teams up with Amazon and others to curb the flood of counterfeit masks.
White House Task Force To Disband, But Trump Will Retain Birx, Fauci As Pandemic Advisers
Public health experts were alarmed by President Donald Trump’s decision to wind down its task force by the end of the month. “It’s like disbanding the war cabinet in the middle of a war,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of public health at Georgetown University. Meanwhile, Trump says Dr. Anthony Fauci will testify in front of the Republican-led Senate, but not the Democratic-led House.
While U.S. Deaths Climb Past 71,000, Projection Models Get Swept Up Into Partisan Politics
In the U.S., 2,100 people were reported dead between 8 p.m. Monday and the same time Tuesday, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Johns Hopkins data. The total number of cases in the country passed 1.2 million, as well. Meanwhile, projecting the total number of cases and deaths was already tricky, but now scientists must also deal with political rhetoric at the same time.
