White House Diverted Hospital-Helping Covid Funds To Vaccine Drive

Stat: The Biden Administration Paid Hospital Covid-19 Funds To Drugmakers
The Biden administration quietly took nearly $7 billion from a fund meant to help hospitals and clinics affected by the pandemic and used it to buy Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutics, according to a document obtained by STAT. The move is similar to the Trump administration’s decision to divert $10 billion from the same fund to Operation Warp Speed, which STAT reported exclusively in March. (Cohrs, 1/26)

In news about worker burnout —

AP: Governor Signs Fast-Tracked $225M For Health Care Workers 
Two months after the omicron variant of the coronavirus slammed hospitals with unvaccinated patients, Gov. Tom Wolf signed fast-tracked legislation Wednesday to help keep burned-out health care workers on board during a staffing crisis. The House unanimously approved the bill earlier Wednesday just before Wolf signed it. It authorizes $225 million, mostly for hospitals to give workers retention and recruitment payments. (1/26)

Axios: The Gig Economy Is Trying To Solve Health Care's Burnout Crisis 
Amid a nationwide nursing shortage and burnout crisis, tech companies say they could be part of the solution by allowing nurses to essentially join the gig economy. Demand is accelerating for tools that help hospitals more efficiently fill shifts, while also offering an exhausted workforce more flexibility. "We're trying to keep these people in the industry," Will Patterson, CEO of CareRev, a health care staffing platform, told Axios. (Reed, 1/26)

Also —

The Atlantic: You Recovered From Omicron. Now What?
While public-health officials are still urging all Americans to be cautious with so much of the virus around, guidance for people who have already recovered from COVID this winter is sorely lacking. That has left Omicron survivors to deal with a confusing question: What now? I reached out to a handful of epidemiologists, and they all agreed that getting Omicron isn’t a golden ticket to normalcy. However, the immune boost from an Omicron infection can still be paired with other precautions to safely go about many activities. Keeping a few pandemic principles in mind can help make everyday decisions a little less fraught. (Tayag, 1/26)

Salt Lake Tribune: Utah Officials Still Recommend Not To Get Tested For COVID. Here’s Why
About two weeks ago, as Utah’s testing sites were overrun with patients amid a statewide proliferation of coronavirus cases, legislators suspended school testing requirements and Gov. Spencer Cox called on most Utahns to stop getting tested for COVID-19, even if they had symptoms. With up to 50,000 Utahns getting tested each day and testing staff also falling ill, the state had maxed out its testing capacity. Supplies needed to be saved for patients with health risks or those who were likely to expose vulnerable people, state officials said. (Alberty, 1/26)

PBS NewsHour: What Vulnerable Patients Need To Know About Seeking COVID Care During The Omicron Surge
So you’ve just tested positive for COVID – what now? If you are immunocompromised, older or otherwise vulnerable, you may feel overwhelmed or scared about seeking care in a moment when U.S. case counts remain sky-high and hospitals are at their breaking point. Omicron’s ability to infect others with rapid speed means that more people in general are more vulnerable to infection, including those whose age or medical conditions make them more at risk for serious outcomes. While omicron appears to cause less severe illness compared to prior variants, models project the country will still see between 50,000 and 300,000 additional COVID-19 deaths by early spring. So the talk about “mild infection” may offer little reassurance to individuals and families in those circumstances. (Isaacs-Thomas, 1/26)

KQED: There's One Population That Gets Overlooked By An 'Everyone Will Get COVID' Mentality 
Ten-year-old Chase and 11-year-old Carson have alert minds and radiant smiles, but very uncooperative bodies. The two brothers have a rare genetic disorder called MEPAN syndrome. They can't sit, stand, walk or talk. For their parents, Danny and Nikki Miller, this means wheelchairs, electric lifts, diaper changes and spoon-feeding. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the Marin, Calif., family relied heavily on several types of therapists and individual aides — and the boys' skills were slowly improving. But when COVID-19 struck, all that support went online or stopped entirely. The parents struggled to balance their own careers with home schooling their boys. (McClurg, 1/26)

AP: Will Virus Be 'Over'? Most Americans Think Not: AP-NORC Poll 
Many Americans agree that they’re going to “be stuck with it forever” — or, at the least, for a long time. A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that few — just 15% — say they’ll consider the pandemic over only when COVID-19 is largely eliminated. By contrast, 83% say they’ll feel the pandemic is over when it’s largely a mild illness. (Brumback, Ellgren and Noveck, 1/27)

In celebrity news —

NPR: Neil Young's Music Removed By Spotify After His Ultimatum Over Joe Rogan Podcast
According to Rolling Stone, Young's letter, which was addressed to his manager and an executive at Warner Music Group, read in part: "I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them ... They can have Rogan or Young. Not both." The letter was quickly removed from Young's website. Spotify's scrubbing of Young from its service was first reported on Wednesday afternoon by The Wall Street Journal. His removal from the streaming platform makes him one of the most popular musical artists not to appear on Spotify, where his songs have garnered hundreds of millions of streams. (Tsioulcas, 1/26)

The Washington Post: YouTube Permanently Bans Dan Bongino For Posting Covid-19 Misinformation
Google-owned YouTube said it had permanently banned prominent conservative media figure Don Bongino from its site after he repeatedly broke its rules on posting coronavirus misinformation. Bongino, who hosts a show on Fox News in addition to talk radio shows and online broadcasts, had been given a strike and a week-long suspension from YouTube earlier in January for saying in one of his videos that masks were useless. He uploaded another video later in the month that also broke the platform’s rules on coronavirus misinformation. When he tried to upload a third video, the company banned him permanently. (De Vynck, 1/26)