tech + pharma 121520
Supply Is Limited and Distribution Uncertain as COVID Vaccine Rolls Out
By Julie Appleby
Hospitals and nursing homes must decide who gets the initial doses as the U.S. heads into the biggest vaccination effort in history. There’s a lot left to figure out.
Hospitals Scramble to Prioritize Which Workers Are First for COVID Shots
By JoNel Aleccia
Even as the federal Food and Drug Administration engaged in intense deliberations ahead of Friday's authorization of the nation’s first COVID vaccine, and days before the initial doses were to be released, hospitals have been grappling with how to distribute the first scarce shots. Their plans vary broadly.
Tracking COVID’s Spread Inside a Tight-Knit Latino Community
By Markian Hawryluk
Contact tracing for COVID-19 in a Latino immigrant community has some unique challenges. But as public health officials in Telluride, Colorado, are showing, using resources from inside those communities can help track and contain the coronavirus.
Why Employers Find It So Hard to Test for COVID
By Hannah Norman
COVID-19 cases are surging across the U.S., and most workplaces are still open for business. As workers fear catching the disease while on the clock, why aren’t more companies footing the bill for testing employees?
Come for Your Eye Exam, Leave With a Band-Aid on Your Arm
By Rachel Bluth
Dentists and optometrists across the country are trying to join in the fight to get everyone vaccinated against COVID-19, the flu and other diseases.
Surprise Federal Drug Rule Directs Insurers to Reveal What They Pay for Prescription Drugs
By Harris Meyer
A provision the Trump administration tucked into its final rule on health plan price transparency requires telling consumers what they will pay out-of-pocket for drugs and showing them what the plan paid.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Vaccines Coming Soon but COVID Relief Bill Still Stalled
Even as the Food and Drug Administration nears emergency authorization for the first vaccine to protect against COVID-19, Congress remains at loggerheads over a COVID relief bill that could also provide the funding to fully distribute the vaccines. Meanwhile, President-elect Joe Biden announced the first members of his health team. Joanne Kenen of Politico, Kimberly Leonard of Business Insider and Mary Ellen McIntire of CQ Roll Call join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Michael Mackert of the University of Texas-Austin, an expert on communicating public health information.
New Legal Push Aims to Speed Magic Mushrooms to Dying Patients
By JoNel Aleccia
A proposal in Washington state would use right-to-try laws to allow terminally ill patients access to psilocybin — the famed magic mushrooms of America’s psychedelic ’60s — to ease depression and anxiety.
How Pharma Money Colors Operation Warp Speed’s Quest to Defeat COVID
By Rachana Pradhan
A Trump administration maneuver allows executives who are leading the federal effort to keep investments in drug companies that would benefit from the pandemic response.
Pediatricians Want Kids to Be Part of COVID Vaccine Trials
By Arthur Allen
Some years from now, infants and school-aged children will probably be the mainstay of a universal vaccination program against COVID-19 in the United States. But first, doctors want to be sure that newfangled vaccines won’t harm them.
How COVID-19 Highlights the Uncertainty of Medical Testing
By Ishani Ganguli
Widespread COVID testing has revealed uncomfortable truths about medical tests: A test result is rarely a definitive answer, but instead a single clue. A result may be falsely positive or negative, or it may show an abnormality that doesn’t matter. And as COVID testing has made too clear, even an accurate, meaningful result is useless unless it’s acted on appropriately.
Farmworkers, Firefighters and Flight Attendants Jockey for Vaccine Priority
By Rachel Bluth and Phil Galewitz
Everyone — from toilet paper manufacturers to patient advocates — is lobbying state advisory boards, arguing their members are essential, vulnerable or both — and, thus, most deserving of an early vaccine.
Feds Look to Pharmacists to Boost Childhood Immunization Rates
By Carmen Heredia Rodriguez
Fears over COVID-19 have contributed to a slump in inoculations among children. Now the federal government is looking to pharmacists for help, but many of them do not participate in a program that offers free shots to half the kids in the U.S.
Cómo COVID-19 resalta la incertidumbre de las pruebas médicas
By Ishani Ganguli
Según estimaciones, estas pruebas tienen una tasa de falsos negativos de hasta el 30%, es decir que 3 de cada 10 personas que realmente tienen la infección darán negativo.
What Seniors Can Expect When COVID Vaccines Begin to Roll Out
By Judith Graham
At least two vaccines could get federal emergency use authorizations this month. Nursing home and assisted living residents will be among the first to receive inoculations. Here’s a guide on how that rollout may proceed.
Where COVID Is on the Menu: Failed Contact Tracing Leaves Diners in the Dark
By Anna Almendrala
State and local public health officials are sure that bars and restaurants are spreading COVID. But they don’t always have much concrete evidence to support their convictions.
Demand for COVID Vaccines Expected to Get Heated — And Fast
By JoNel Aleccia
With two vaccines against coronavirus disease poised for release within weeks, experts say they expect attitudes to shift dramatically from hesitancy to “Beanie Baby”-level urgency.
Agrícolas, bomberos y azafatas buscan estar entre los primeros en recibir la vacuna
By Rachel Bluth and Phil Galewitz
Trabajadores de salud de primera línea, y residentes y personal de hogares de adultos mayores, recibirán las dosis de la vacuna contra COVID primero, pero... ¿quiénes le seguirán?