Weekly Edition: January 22, 2021

Biden Takes the Reins, Calls for a United Front Against Covid and Other Threats
By Julie Rovner On health care, President Joe Biden made it clear that combating the covid-19 pandemic will be his top priority. “We must set aside politics and finally face this pandemic as one nation,” he said. “We will get through this together.”

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: The Biden Health Agenda
President Joe Biden is wasting no time getting to work. On his first day in office, Biden signed a series of executive orders addressing the covid pandemic, promising more to come. But even with Democrats taking the barest majority in the Senate, the new president’s ambitious proposals on covid and other health issues could be in for a rough ride. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Tami Luhby of CNN and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read too.

Health Issues Carried Weight on the Campaign Trail. What Could Biden Do in His First 100 Days?
By Victoria Knight KHN has teamed up with PolitiFact to track what becomes of President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign promises over the next four years. As he moves into the West Wing, what are his chances of making progress on health care?

Biden’s Covid Challenge: 100 Million Vaccinations in the First 100 Days. It Won’t Be Easy.
By Victoria Knight But keeping campaign promises regarding the nation’s covid response will go beyond stepping up the rollout of the vaccines.

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?

Covid Vaccine Rollout Leaves Most Older Adults Confused Where to Get Shots
By Phil Galewitz Nearly 6 in 10 people 65 and older say they don’t have enough information about how to get vaccinated, according to a new KFF poll.

Door to Door in Miami’s Little Havana to Build Trust in Testing, Vaccination
By Verónica Zaragovia, WLRN It's time-consuming but worthwhile: Residents respond to messages about Covid testing and vaccines when outreach teams speak their language and make a personal connection.

Black Americans Are Getting Vaccinated at Lower Rates Than White Americans
By Hannah Recht and Lauren Weber Black Americans are receiving covid vaccines at a much lower rate than their white peers due to a combination of mistrust and access issues, leaving them behind in the mission to vaccinate the nation’s population.

Patients Fend for Themselves to Access Highly Touted Covid Antibody Treatments
By JoNel Aleccia Months after President Donald Trump credited monoclonal antibody therapy for his quick recovery from covid-19, only a trickle of the product has found its way into regular people. While hundreds of thousands of vials sit unused, sick patients who might benefit from early treatment have been left on their own to vie for access.

Yurts, Igloos and Pop-Up Domes: How Safe Is ‘Outside’ Restaurant Dining This Winter?
By Will Stone All kinds of new structures are popping up to extend the outdoor dining season. Some are safer than others.

California Is Overriding Its Limits on Nurse Workloads as Covid Surges
By April Dembosky, KQED As covid patients flood California emergency rooms, hospitals are increasingly desperate to find enough staffers to care for them all. But some nurses worry hospitals will use the pandemic as an excuse to permanently roll back their hard-won nurse-patient ratios.

On Trump’s Last Full Day, Nation Records 400,000 Covid Deaths
By Will Stone On the day before the inauguration of a new president, the country marks a once unthinkable milestone of 400,000 deaths. The winter surge of the pandemic claimed 100,000 Americans in just five weeks.

Trump’s Pardons Included Health Care Execs Behind Massive Frauds
By Fred Schulte Those walking away free were facing years in prison for crimes of “unbounded greed.”

After a Decade of Lobbying, ALS Patients Gain Faster Access to Disability Payments
By Michelle Andrews In late December, then-President Donald Trump signed a law that eliminates — only for people with Lou Gehrig’s disease — the required five-month waiting period before benefits begin under the Social Security Disability Insurance program. Gaining SSDI also gives these patients immediate Medicare health coverage.

Advocates View Health Care as Key to Driving LGBTQ Rights Conversation
By Aneri Pattani A state ban preventing local governments from enacting nondiscrimination ordinances expired Dec. 1, opening the door for a new wave of local nondiscrimination laws.

Are Public Health Ads Worth the Price? Not if They’re All About Fear
By Eric Berger Public service announcements about drug use or other public health problems often fall short, public health marketing experts say, because they incite people’s worst fears rather than giving people solutions.

‘An Arm and a Leg’: Host Dan Weissmann Talks Price Transparency on ‘Axios Today’
By Dan Weissmann Host Dan Weissmann talked about a new federal rule — a requirement for hospitals to make public the prices they negotiate with insurers — with Niala Boodhoo for the daily-news podcast “Axios Today.”