Keeping The COVID Plague At Bay: How California Is Protecting Older Veterans

Even as COVID-19 has ravaged nursing homes around the country, California has managed to keep the virus at bay at its eight state-run homes for frail and older veterans. What exactly went right?

COVID Survivors’ Blood Plasma Is A Sought-After New Commodity

A possibility that the blood of people who had COVID could save others has set off a mad scramble for donors — with top-dollar offers and a plan that relies on the blood of 10,000 Orthodox Jewish women.

Reopening In The COVID Era: How To Adapt To A New Normal

States and the federal government are experimenting with steps that will allow people to start working again and returning to more typical lifestyles. But public health experts offer their thoughts on the related risk-benefit calculations.

Eerie Emptiness Of ERs Worries Doctors As Heart Attack And Stroke Patients Delay Care

Emergency department volumes are down 40 to 50 percent across the country. Doctors worry a new wave of cardiac patients is headed their way — people who have delayed care and will be sicker and more injured when they finally seek care.

KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Blowing The Whistle On Trump Team’s COVID Policies

Frustration from inside the Trump administration over the management of the COVID-19 pandemic is starting to become public, as whistleblowers ― some anonymous, some named — tell how the effort is being undermined by favoritism, incompetence and a disdain for science. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court heard a case that could threaten the Affordable Care Act’s birth control benefit. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News and Rachana Pradhan of Kaiser Health News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, for “extra credit,” the panelists recommend their favorite stories of the week they think you should read, too.

Economic Blow Of The Coronavirus Hits America’s Already Stressed Farmers

At the start of the spring planting season, farmers across the U.S. heartland were already trying to recover from last year’s flooding amid worsening economic conditions when the pandemic struck. Farm bankruptcies and suicides continue to climb. A lack of mental health resources in rural America makes finding help more complicated.

How The Pandemic And An Anti-Vax Health Official Are Roiling A Montana Community

In one conservative pocket of Montana, a local health board member who opposes vaccinations helped fight the state’s stay-at-home rules. But now, as the state slowly reopens, she faces a backlash of her own.

Palliative Care Helped Family Face ‘The Awful, Awful Truth’

Elizabeth and Robert Mar would have celebrated 50 years of marriage in August. Instead, they died within a day of each other. Their two very different deaths illustrate how palliative care is changing to help patients and families cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-Plagued California Nursing Homes Often Had Problems In Past

Nursing homes with COVID-19 infections tend to violate health rules more often and have more complaints and fines, records show. But infections also plague highly rated facilities — while sparing some low-ranked ones.

Testing In California Still A Frustrating Patchwork Of Haves And Have-Nots

It’s hard to overstate how uneven access to critical coronavirus test kits remains in the nation’s largest state. Even as some Southern California counties are opening drive-thru sites to make testing available to any resident who wants it, a rural northern county is testing raw sewage to determine whether the coronavirus has infiltrated its communities.