Weekly Edition: July 17, 2020
Lost on the Frontline
The Staffs of KFF Health News and The Guardian and Christina Jewett and Maureen O’Hagan and Laura Ungar and Melissa Bailey and Katja Ridderbusch and JoNel Aleccia and Alastair Gee, The Guardian and Danielle Renwick, The Guardian and Carmen Heredia Rodriguez and Eli Cahan and Shefali Luthra and Michaela Gibson Morris and Sharon Jayson and Mary Chris Jaklevic and Natalia Megas, The Guardian and Cara Anthony and Michelle Crouch and Sarah Jane Tribble and Anna Almendrala and Michelle Andrews and Samantha Young and Sarah Varney and Victoria Knight and Christina M. Oriel, Asian Journal and Alex Smith, KCUR and Elizabeth Lawrence
“Lost on the Frontline” is an ongoing project by Kaiser Health News and The Guardian that aims to document the lives of health care workers in the U.S. who died from COVID 19, and to investigate why so many are victims of the disease.
Families of Health Workers Killed by COVID Fight for Denied Workers’ Comp Benefits
Melissa Bailey and Christina Jewett
Attorneys say some state workers’ compensation laws leave workers and families struggling for benefits after a COVID illness or death.
Next Showdown in Congress: Protecting Workers vs. Protecting Employers in the Pandemic
Christina Jewett and Melissa Bailey
Democrats want to bind employers to follow a safety plan, while Republicans seek to shield employers and doctors from lawsuits.
Disease-Carrying Mosquitoes Fly Free as Health Departments Focus on Coronavirus
Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Lauren Weber
Health departments and other public agencies tasked with protecting the nation from disease-carrying mosquitoes are overstretched amid the coronavirus pandemic — even as the nation is told it’s safest to be outside.
Ex-West Virginia Health Chief Says Cuts Hurt Virus Response
Michelle R. Smith, The Associated Press and Anthony Izaguirre, The Associated Press
The former West Virginia public health leader forced out by the governor says decades-old computer systems and cuts to staff over a period of years had made a challenging job even harder during a once-in-a-century pandemic.
Why Doctors Keep Monitoring Kids Who Recover From Mysterious COVID-Linked Illness
Fred Mogul, WNYC and Maria Godoy, NPR News
About 1,000 children worldwide have had the condition known as MIS-C — Multisymptom Inflammatory Syndrome in Children. Children's hospitals around the U.S. are trying to keep tabs on young people after they recover from the ailment, to gauge any long-term effects.
California School Districts Grope for Sensible Reopening Plans
Mark Kreidler
Some districts want to bring everyone back to the classroom and some are planning distance-only learning, while most others are settling on one of a variety of options in the middle. Whatever their leanings, they all face vast, troubling uncertainty.
Montana Rodeo Goes On, Bucking Fears on Fort Peck Reservation
Katheryn Houghton
Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes initially opposed the Wolf Point Wild Horse Stampede this year, worrying about hundreds of people coming to their reservation for the rodeo amid coronavirus concerns. But the annual event was on private land and went ahead, highlighting the reopening tensions between resuming normal economic activities and protecting the vulnerable.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: The Trump Administration’s War on Fauci
Case counts for COVID-19 are rising in nearly every state, yet a major campaign by the Trump administration this past week was an attempt to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci, a trusted voice in public health. Meanwhile, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s surprise decision to protect abortion rights, there’s been a flurry of activity on reproductive health issues in lower federal courts. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post and Erin Mershon of Stat News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more.
Conspiracy Theories Aside, Here’s What Contact Tracers Really Do
Julie Appleby
Recently, the idea has triggered a lot of conspiracy-theory talk. But it’s actually a tried-and-true public health tool being applied to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
You Can See Friends and Relatives During the Pandemic Surge — But Do It Carefully
Bernard J. Wolfson
Even as most U.S. states and authorities reimpose many of the restrictions they had prematurely lifted, public health experts say you can still have a safe social life — just not the one you were used to before the pandemic hit.
States Allow In-Person Nursing Home Visits As Families Charge Residents Die ‘Of Broken Hearts’
Judith Graham
Half the states are rolling back strict policies that have kept family members out of nursing homes because of fears of spreading the coronavirus.
Azar Says Federal Law Had Preexisting Conditions Covered Before ACA. Not So Much.
Julie Rovner
This appears to be an overstatement.
A Coronavirus Vaccine: Where Does It Stand?
Louis Jacobson, PolitiFact
Under ordinary circumstances, these phases of vaccine development can take years to complete. But now, during the age of coronavirus, the timeline is being shortened. Here's an inventory of where things stand.
Listen: A Bureaucratic Shuffle for Hospital COVID Data
KHN’s Julie Rovner discusses the Trump administration plans to change how hospitals report their data on coronavirus cases and concerns among critics that may allow officials to use the material to make political points.
Listen: Colorado Cuts Back Health Care Programs Amid Dual Crises
KHN senior Colorado correspondent Markian Hawryluk joined KUNC’s Erin O’Toole on “Colorado Edition” to discuss his recent story on health care cuts that many states, including Colorado, are having to take amid the pandemic.