Weekly Edition: June 12, 2020
Fighting COVID And Police Brutality, Medical Teams Take To Streets To Treat Protesters
LJ Dawson
Off-duty medical professionals joined protests in Denver and elsewhere sparked by George Floyd’s death to treat injured protesters, risking injury themselves.
For EMTs, There’s No ‘Rule Book’ For Facing A Pandemic And Protests At Once
Carmen Heredia Rodriguez
Emergency medical technicians, who have been on the front lines against the coronavirus, also play a key role in helping provide care during protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.
Tear-Gassing Protesters During An Infectious Outbreak ‘A Recipe For Disaster’
Will Stone
Health researchers are among the voices calling for police to stop using tear gas and pepper spray on protesters, because these chemical irritants can damage the body in ways that can spread the coronavirus and increase the severity of COVID-19. One example: Tear gas and pepper spray can sow confusion and panic in a crowd, causing people to rip off their masks and touch their faces, leading to more contamination.
Barr Says Police Didn’t Use Chemical Irritants To Clear Area By DC Church. They Did.
Jon Greenberg, PolitiFact
The attorney general's assertion is directly at odds with the description of pepper balls offered by the manufacturer.
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.
Exclusive: Nearly 600 — And Counting — US Health Workers Have Died Of COVID-19
Christina Jewett and Melissa Bailey and Danielle Renwick, The Guardian
The Guardian and KHN release new figures Saturday showing the harsh toll that the pandemic is taking on the front-line health workers.
A Family With Five Doctors — And Two COVID Deaths
Natalia Megas, The Guardian
A New Jersey family tried everything they could to save their father and sister, but faced shortages of protective gear and grim hospital conditions.
Society Is Reopening. Prepare To Hunker Down At Home Again.
Bernard J. Wolfson
First, businesses started to reopen; then racial justice protesters flooded the streets. Social distancing is beginning to fade. Are you ready for a second wave of COVID-19 infections ― and a renewed lockdown?
The Elevator Arises As The Latest Logjam In Getting Back To Work
Lauren Weber
As more and more people drift back into their workplaces, they face a very small space that can create a large logjam: the elevator.
At Lake Of The Ozarks, It’s (Almost) Business As Usual, Despite The Coronavirus
Sara Shipley Hiles
This popular resort area gained national attention for a viral video showing Memorial Day partiers disregarding guidelines to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Now, with summer looming and at least one COVID-19 case connected to the gathering, it reflects the difficult balance between safety and tourism.
Rapid Changes To Health System Spurred By COVID Might Be Here To Stay
Julie Rovner
The coronavirus pandemic has forced the nation’s doctors and hospitals to reevaluate how they work. At least three major changes may have a lasting impact.
At-Home Care Designed For COVID Likely Here To Stay At Cleveland Hospital
Brie Zeltner
A public hospital in Cleveland has been trying to keep COVID patients out of its beds. It tried a number of innovations for developing better communication — even better relationships — with patients. Officials think this groundwork helped keep the outbreak at bay — and should be the new business model going forward.
Public Health Officials Face Wave Of Threats, Pressure Amid Coronavirus Response
Lauren Weber and Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Michelle R. Smith, The Associated Press
Public health officials are confronting growing pressure — and threats — across the country as the backlash to the coronavirus response continues. At least 27 state and local health leaders have resigned, retired or been fired since April across 13 states.
Federal Help Falters As Nursing Homes Run Short Of Protective Equipment
Jordan Rau
More than 3,000 nursing homes reported less than a week’s worth of supplies, and 653 said they had run out entirely at some point. Stopgap FEMA equipment has not reached many facilities, and packages that have arrived have fallen short of promises.
Health Workers Resort To Etsy, Learning Chinese, Shady Deals To Find Safety Gear
Eli Cahan and Sarah Varney
The shortages are so dire that nursing homes and other health centers are going to extraordinary lengths for masks, gowns and essential materials.
If You’ve Lost Your Health Plan In The COVID Crisis, You’ve Got Options
Julie Appleby
But some of those options, like special enrollment periods, are time-sensitive.
COVID-19 Batters A Beloved Bay Area Community Health Care Center
Rachel Scheier
Health clinics in isolated African American communities in the San Francisco Bay Area provide crucial services to neglected populations. But like thousands of other community clinics around the nation, their finances have been wrecked by the pandemic shutdown.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Say What? The Spread Of Coronavirus Confusion
Months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the public seems more confused than ever. And health officials still are not all on the same page; this week the World Health Organization had to walk back an official’s statement about how commonly the virus is spread by people without symptoms. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post and Mary Ellen McIntire of CQ Roll Call join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, Rovner interviews Michael Mackert, a professor and health communications expert at the University of Texas-Austin, about how health information can best be translated to the public.
New Coronavirus Hot Spots Emerge Across South And In California, As Northeast Slows
Martha Bebinger, WBUR and Blake Farmer, Nashville Public Radio and Jackie Fortiér, LAist
Nationwide, coronavirus infection numbers are trending down, but several states are seeing upticks, with the heaviest impact falling on communities of color and nursing home residents.
Using Stories To Mentally Survive As A COVID-19 Clinician
Stephanie Stephens
The practice of narrative medicine helps health care professionals hear the life stories behind a patient’s immediate complaints. Some doctors are finding that these skills also provide an alcove of needed reflection amid the pandemonium of COVID-19.
Baltimore’s ‘Squeegee Boys’: ‘If We Don’t Go Out, We Don’t Eat’
Chaseedaw Giles
The federal government’s relief package left behind many of America’s poorest workers struggling to make ends meet as the coronavirus ravaged and unemployment rose. Baltimore’s “squeegee boys” are among them.
When A Doctor No Longer Accepts Medicare, Patients Left Holding The Bag
Carmen Heredia Rodriguez
As doctors look for alternative ways to charge patients for care, some Medicare enrollees may lose access to their physicians.