Latest KFF Health News Stories
The Challenges Of Keeping Young Adults Safe During The Pandemic
Even while playing the role of quarantine enforcer for your teens and 20-somethings, recognize that they are as anxious and worried as you are — and with good reason.
Lawmaker Pushing Mental Health Reform: It’s ‘More Needed Than Ever’
Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked lawmakers to pare down their legislative wish lists and focus on the state’s coronavirus response. But state Sen. Jim Beall plans to forge ahead with his mental health care proposals, including a measure to create a state mental health parity requirement.
Consumer Beware: Coronavirus Antibody Tests Are Still A Work In Progress
Public officials are putting high hopes on new blood tests as a means of determining who has developed antibodies to COVID-19, and with those antibodies, presumed immunity. But experts caution the tests are largely unreliable and the science is still catching up.
Jails And Prisons Spring Thousands To Prevent Coronavirus Outbreaks
As wardens across the country grapple with COVID-19 outbreaks, inmates are being released to prevent widespread contagion in overcrowded prisons.
Consultorios de pediatría luchan por adaptarse y sobrevivir en medio de COVID-19
Miles de pediatras viven una nueva realidad: reducción de ingresos, padres aterrorizados y escasez de equipos de protección, mientras atienden a los potenciales vectores de la infección.
How Do We Exit The Shutdown? Hire An Army Of Public Health Workers
The pandemic has exposed massive cracks in the foundations of the U.S. public health system. Getting the country back to normal, experts say, will require a major investment in Public Health 101: training a corps of workers who can track people with the virus and prevent them from passing it to others.
Battling A Pandemic Across 4,750 Square Miles And 10 Million People
Los Angeles County’s health leader describes the struggle for data and resources in the coronavirus fight.
Newsom’s Ambitious Health Care Agenda Crumbles In A ‘Radically Changed’ World
California Gov. Gavin Newsom charged into 2020 with ambitious — and expensive — proposals to increase health insurance coverage, reduce homelessness and tackle drug prices. Then came COVID-19.
California Hospitals Face Surge With Proven Fixes And Some Hail Marys
California is entering the most critical period in its battle against COVID-19, and may need thousands of hospital beds and ventilators to accommodate a surge of critically ill patients. Hospitals are taking extreme measures, such as using 3D printers to make ventilator parts and turning cafeterias into wards.
‘Essential’ Or Not, These Workers Report For Duty
In Los Angeles County and beyond, people continue to toil through the coronavirus pandemic, often in positions that put them in constant contact with the public. Many are low-wage workers who can’t afford to stop working.
California’s New Attack On Opioid Addiction Hits Old Roadblocks
State officials in California have achieved some success in promoting the use of medication-assisted treatment for people with opioid addictions, but they are bumping up against familiar resistance and constraints.
California Isn’t Testing Enough Children For Lead, Prompting Legislation
A recent report by the California state auditor faults two state health departments for failing to ensure that children receive required blood lead tests and for not doing enough to reduce childhood lead exposure in high-risk areas. Lawmakers are proposing several measures to increase testing.
Public Health Officials To Newsom: Lockdown Won’t Work Without Enforcement
California Gov. Gavin Newsom was out front nationally when he ordered nearly all Californians to stay at home to stem the spread of COVID-19. But local officials warn it won’t work without tougher enforcement.
California Lawmakers Struggle To Conduct Business Amid COVID-19 Lockdown
In an interview with California Healthline, the state’s Senate leader, Toni Atkins, makes clear that with social-distancing measures in force it will be difficult to debate and pass complicated budget measures ― but public health, education and public safety will be priorities.
Photo Essay: LA Under Lockdown
Californians are under orders to stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus — and the result is that some of Southern California’s best-known spots are shuttered or deserted, from Santa Monica Pier to Olvera Street.
With Medical Safety Gear Scarce, The Public Is Stepping Up. Here’s Help On Ways To Help.
If you or your company have useful supplies and want to donate them, here are some answers to questions you might be asking.
A View From The Front Lines Of California’s COVID-19 Battle
California physicians dealing with COVID-19 offer a sobering portrait of a health care system bracing for the worst of a pandemic that could be months from peaking.
Is The Bay Area’s ‘Unprecedented’ Lockdown The First Of Many?
About 7 million people across the San Francisco Bay Area began to “shelter in place” Tuesday to limit the spread of the new coronavirus. Although public health officials acknowledged the orders were drastic, they also agreed they were necessary.
In Face Of Coronavirus, Many Hospitals Cancel On-Site Training For Nursing And Med Students
Hospitals and nursing homes say they are acting to protect students and patients, but nursing educators worry the pipeline of new nurses could be slowed at a time when they may be needed most. Some doctors in training have also seen their clinical rotations canceled.
Many Schools Have Closed ― But Not All. What Parents Need To Know About That Tough Call.
Closing K-12 schools is part of a broad strategy to limit public interactions and slow the spread of COVID-19 cases. But the decision is far from easy, with conflicting science about how effective such closures are weighed against the massive disruption to families’ lives.
