At Nursing Homes, Long Waits for Results Render Covid Tests ‘Useless’
As omicron surges, more nursing homes are facing a double whammy: Lab tests are taking too long, and fast antigen tests are in short supply.
Public Health
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Colleges Struggle to Recruit Therapists for Students in Crisis
The need for mental health services on campus, which was already rising, has skyrocketed during the pandemic, with many students undergoing grave psychological crises. Colleges say they often lack the means to offer competitive salaries to therapists.
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‘American Diagnosis’ Episode 2: Reclaiming Native Food Traditions to Nourish Indigenous People
Native foodways of hunting, fishing, gathering, and farming have been under threat since the arrival of Europeans. In this episode, hear how Indigenous people are reclaiming their food traditions to improve community health.
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In California Nursing Homes, Omicron Is Bad, but So Is the Isolation
Omicron infections are surging in residential care facilities, causing massive sickouts among staff members and an uptick in hospitalizations and deaths. The latest visitor restrictions and testing requirements are also compounding the isolation that residents have suffered for almost two years.
By Linda Marsa -
It’s Day 6 of Covid, and a Rapid Antigen Test Comes Back Positive. Stay Home, Say Virologists.
Say you’re on Day 6 — or 8 or 10 — of a symptomatic covid infection, and a rapid antigen test comes back positive. Could the test just be detecting bits and pieces of dead virus? If you’re a petri dish, sure. But if you’re a human, chances are you’re still infectious. Virologists weigh in.
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States Were Sharing Covid Test Kits. Then Omicron Hit.
The omicron variant upended a system in which states shared rapid covid tests with those that needed them more. Cooperation has turned into competition as states run out of supplies, limit which organizations get them, or hold on to expired kits as a last resort.
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In Super-Vaxxed Vermont, Covid Strikes — But Packs Far Less Punch
With its highest-in-the-nation vaccination rates, Vermont offers a glimpse of what’s possible as the U.S. learns to live with coronavirus.
By Sarah Varney -
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Record ACA Enrollment Puts Pressure on Congress
Temporary subsidies helped boost enrollment under the Affordable Care Act to a record 14.5 million, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. But unless Democrats in Congress extend those subsidies, many of those new enrollees will be in for a rude surprise just ahead of midterm elections. Meanwhile, the need to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer further crowds an already tight legislative schedule. Joanne Kenen of Politico and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Anna Edney of Bloomberg News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Diana Greene Foster, author of “The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having — Or Being Denied — An Abortion.”
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Readers and Tweeters: Give Nurse Practitioners Their Due
KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
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CDC Tells Pharmacies to Give 4th Covid Shots to Immunocompromised Patients
The health agency and the White House acted in the wake of a KHN story about pharmacists refusing to give shots to patients with moderate to severe immune suppression.
By Liz Szabo -
With a Vaccine Mandate Looming, Nursing Homes Face More Staffing Problems
Missouri has the worst covid-19 vaccination rate for nursing home health care workers in the nation. There, the federal mandate for workers to get vaccinated — upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court — reveals the problems that operators have hiring staff, keeping them, and providing decent care.
By Eric Berger -
Pharmacies Are Turning Away Immunocompromised Patients Seeking 4th Covid Shot
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly changed its guidance to allow an extra shot in certain cases, but some pharmacy personnel are confused about who is eligible.
By Liz Szabo -
Vaccine Wars Ignite in California as Lawmakers Seek Stronger Laws
Anti-vaccination activists say California’s Democratic lawmakers are helping strengthen their movement nationally by pushing for tougher vaccine requirements — without exemptions for religious or personal beliefs. But a new pro-vaccine lobbying force is vowing to fight back.
By Angela Hart -
Why Medicare Doesn’t Pay for Rapid At-Home Covid Tests
The laws governing Medicare don’t provide coverage for self-administered diagnostic tests, which is precisely what the rapid antigen tests are and why they are an important tool for containing the pandemic.
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Patient, Beware: Some States Still Pushing Ineffective Covid Antibody Treatments
The top 12 states using antibody therapies produced by Regeneron and Lilly — which research shows don’t work against the omicron variant — include several Southern states with some of the nation’s lowest vaccination rates, but also California, which ranks among the top 20 for fully vaccinated residents.
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Biden Administration’s Rapid-Test Rollout Doesn’t Easily Reach Those Who Need It Most
Two rapid-testing initiatives the Biden administration released in the past week are inaccessible to some residents of multifamily housing, people who don’t speak English well, or those without internet access.
By Hannah Recht and Victoria Knight -
Wildfires and Omicron Prompt a Special Health Insurance Enrollment Period in Colorado
Disasters have previously prompted special enrollment periods in California, Maine, and the South. Now, Colorado is extending the state insurance marketplace sign-up period by two months.
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5 Things You Should Know About ‘Free’ At-Home Covid Tests
Telling insurance companies to pay for rapid covid-19 tests is just the latest covid-related cost the federal government expects them to bear. But who really ends up paying for it?
By Damon Darlin -
Officials Struggle to Regulate Pop-Up Covid Testing Sites — And Warn Patients to Beware
High demand for covid screening and scarce supply have opened the door to bad actors, and officials in some states are sounding the alarm about dubious street testing operators that could put people’s personal data, their health or wallets at risk.
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‘American Diagnosis’ Episode 1: On the Navajo Nation, Root Causes Complicated the Covid Fight
Explore what made the Navajo people ― also known as the Diné ― so vulnerable to the first surges of the covid-19 pandemic. The first episode of “Rezilience,” Season 4 of the “American Diagnosis” podcast, begins in the forests outside the Grand Canyon.