Weekly Edition: February 26, 2021

College Tuition Sparked a Mental Health Crisis. Then the Hefty Hospital Bill Arrived.
By Jordan Rau A student sought counseling help after feeling panicked when she had trouble paying a big tuition bill. A weeklong stay in a psychiatric hospital followed — along with a $3,413 bill. The hospital soft-pedaled its charity care policy.

As Covid Surged, Vaccines Came Too Late for at Least 400 Medical Workers
By Erin McCormick, The Guardian A Guardian/KHN analysis of deaths nationwide indicates that at least 1 in 8 health workers lost in the pandemic died after the vaccine became available, narrowly missing the protection that might have saved their lives.

Lost on the Frontline: Explore the Database
By The Staffs of KFF Health News and The Guardian As of Wednesday, the KHN-Guardian project counted 3,607 U.S. health worker deaths in the first year of the pandemic. Today we add 39 profiles, including a hospice chaplain, a nurse who spoke to intubated patients "like they were listening," and a home health aide who couldn't afford to stop working. This is the most comprehensive count in the nation as of April 2021, and our interactive database investigates the question: Did they have to die?

‘It Doesn’t Feel Worth It’: Covid Is Pushing New York’s EMTs to the Brink
By Martha Pskowski, The Guardian Struggling with low pay and high stress, New York paramedics and EMTs are reaching a breaking point.

Why AstraZeneca and J&J’s Vaccines, In Use Elsewhere, Are Still on Hold in America
By Sarah Jane Tribble Covid has pressed the Food and Drug Administration into its fastest vaccine reviews ever — which are still painfully slow, critics say.

Covid Vaccine Websites Violate Disability Laws, Create Inequity for the Blind
By Lauren Weber and Hannah Recht A KHN investigation found covid vaccine registration and information websites at the federal, state and local levels are flouting disability rights laws and limiting the ability of people who are blind or visually impaired to sign up for shots.

Calling All Vaccinators: Closing the Next Gap in Covid Supply and Demand
By Julie Appleby In the herculean effort to vaccinate America, the emphasis so far has been on trying to increase the number of vaccine doses available. Soon there could be a shortfall in people to administer the shots.

After Billions of Dollars and Dozens of Wartime Declarations, Why Are Vaccines Still in Short Supply?
By Rachana Pradhan and Arthur Allen The Trump and Biden administrations both imposed wartime production requirements. But industry experts say the vast quantities of raw materials and specialty equipment needed for billions of newfangled vaccines have required herculean logistical efforts.

Countless Homebound Patients Still Wait for Covid Vaccine Despite Seniors’ Priority
By Judith Graham Health organizations have begun sending doctors and nurses to apartment buildings and private homes to vaccinate homebound seniors, but the efforts are slow and spotty.

The Do’s and Don’ts on Social Media for Vaccine Haves and Have-Nots
By Chaseedaw Giles In the thick of a global pandemic, and with a vaccine rollout that has been less than optimal, it's no surprise that selfies featuring the coveted covid shot surface on social media timelines. But is posting a vaccine selfie on your social media account a faux pas or a needed encouragement for others to get the shot?

In Search of the Shot
KHN readers detail their frustrations and successes as they hunt for a scarce covid-19 vaccine.

Learning to Live Again: A Lazarus Tale From the Covid Front Lines
By Bernard J. Wolfson Photos by Heidi de Marco The staff at L.A. County’s public rehabilitation hospital is helping mostly Latino, low-income patients recover the basic functions of daily life robbed from them during weeks or months of critical covid illness.

Have a Case of a Covid Variant? No One Is Going to Tell You
By Christina Jewett and JoNel Aleccia and Rachana Pradhan As experts race to get an approved test for covid variants, officials are severely restricted from sharing information about the cases. That makes it harder to protect others.

DeSantis Advances Questionable Link Between Lockdowns and Despair
By Phil Galewitz Experts agreed there’s no definitive evidence to back up the Florida governor’s assertion.

Lessons From California Prison Where Covid ‘Spread Like Wildfire’
By Kerry Klein, Valley Public Radio One California county is home to the two worst clusters of covid in prisons in the country. Ninety-four percent of Avenal State Prison’s inmates contracted the virus. Physical distancing has proved impossible in a facility housing 50% more people than it should.

It’s Time to Get Back to Normal? Not According to Science.
By Victoria Knight With covid, and its newly emerging variants, still circulating throughout the nation and the world, experts say it is definitely not the time to abandon efforts to control the virus’s spread.

Covid Strikes Clergy as They Comfort Pandemic’s Sick and Dying
By Bruce Alpert Spiritual leaders risk their own lives and health to tend to covid’s victims and their loved ones.

Organ Transplant Patient Dies After Receiving Covid-Infected Lungs
By JoNel Aleccia The first confirmed U.S. case of SARS-CoV-2 being transmitted through an organ transplant has prompted calls for updated transplant protocols and additional testing of samples from deep within donor lungs.

Feds OK’d Export of Millions of N95 Masks as U.S. Workers Cried for More
By Christina Jewett In the hours before President Joe Biden was inaugurated, the Federal Emergency Management Agency allowed a Texas mask maker to ship the high-quality masks overseas.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Staffing Up at HHS
More than a month into the Biden administration, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, the nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, finally got his confirmation hearings in the Senate, along with nominees for surgeon general and assistant secretary for health. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court announced it would hear a case challenging the Trump administration’s regulation that effectively evicted Planned Parenthood from the federal family planning program. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Tami Luhby of CNN and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews HuffPost’s Jonathan Cohn, whose new book, “The Ten Year War: Obamacare and the Unfinished Crusade for Universal Coverage,” is out this week.

‘It’s a Minefield’: Biden Health Pick Must Tread Carefully on Abortion and Family Planning
By Noam N. Levey and Rachel Bluth President Biden vowed to reverse reproductive health restrictions enacted by President Trump. His pick to run HHS, Xavier Becerra, fought the Trump efforts but must now navigate a difficult legal and political landscape.

Biden’s Straight-Talking CDC Director Has Long Used Data to Save Lives
By Carey Goldberg, WBUR Dr. Rochelle Walensky said scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were "muzzled" and "diminished" by the Trump team, especially during the pandemic. She aims to fix that.

New California Law Makes It Easier to Get Care for Mental Health and Substance Abuse
By Bernard J. Wolfson The measure, which took effect Jan. 1, removes loopholes that made it easy for insurers to use arcane company guidelines to avoid paying for care. Patients now have an easier way to challenge those denials.

With GOP Back at Helm, Montana Renews Push to Sniff Out Welfare Fraud
By Katheryn Houghton Montana is one of the latest states looking to aggressively check welfare eligibility to cut costs. Supporters of such steps say it’s about what’s fair — weeding out those who don’t qualify for assistance — while opponents say it will cut loose enrollees who actually need help.

New Single-Payer Bill Intensifies Newsom’s Political Peril
By Angela Hart and Rachel Bluth With the introduction of a single-payer bill Friday, a group of California Democratic lawmakers set the terms of the health care debate in the Capitol this year. The move puts Gov. Gavin Newsom in a delicate political position, threatening to alienate voters as he faces a likely recall election.

Journalists Weigh In on Biden’s HHS Pick
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.