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Contact tracers in many states are stretched thin. Colorado is among the latest states to launch an app that aims to help, based on the COVID contact-tracing tool built by Apple and Google. But there’s a chicken-and-egg problem: More people will use them if they prove to work, but the apps become effective only if more people use them.
States vary in how they define face coverings in their mandates. But a bandanna or neck gaiter isn't nearly as effective as a surgical or cloth mask. Public health experts say every state needs more standardization to protect against COVID-19.
Drugmakers will walk away with massive profits, but much of the pioneering work on mRNA vaccines was done with government money.
California’s ping-ponging approach to managing the pandemic — twice reopening large portions of the service sector economy only to shut them again — has residents and business owners on edge. But experts say the push and pull on businesses may be what success looks like in much of the U.S. for months to come, given COVID-19’s pervasive spread.
Doctors and nurses say order puts lives in danger, amid a COVID surge and a statewide shortage of health care workers.
Catalyzed by the paltry response to the pandemic and the inequities it is causing, people are flocking to graduate programs in public health to become the next front-line workers.
Activists across the country are demanding that medical schools eliminate the use of race as a diagnostic tool, recognize how systemic racism harms patients and reckon with some of medicine’s racist history.
More than 246,000 people in the U.S. have been killed by the coronavirus, leaving hundreds of thousands of others grieving. Judith Graham, author of KHN’s Navigating Aging column, hosted a discussion on these unprecedented losses and dealing with bereavement. She was joined by Holly Prigerson, co-director of the Center for Research on End-of-Life Care at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, and Diane Snyder-Cowan, leader of the bereavement professionals steering committee of the National Council of Hospice and Palliative Professionals.
During the pandemic, shelters are having to change the way they do things to prevent the virus from spreading among the vulnerable homeless population. Now, as winter weather moves in, there’s less room at the shelters for those in need — threatening to leave many, literally, out in the cold.
As the coronavirus surges around the country, workers in nursing homes and assisted living centers are watching cases rise in long-term care facilities with a sense of dread. Many of these workers struggle with grief over the suffering they’ve witnessed.
How do we as Black people protect ourselves from racism? In our household, my decision to let my hair go natural forced my father and me to have a conversation about personal safety, the police and my desire to feel free. He viewed my permed hair and weave as a protective shield that increased my chances of making it home safely. But, in reality, my haircut — long or short — can’t protect me from racism.
Scientists have found that some people have antibodies against parts of their own immune system, allowing viruses to multiply rapidly.
While the Harvard Business School gently chided returnees to be on their best behavior, Stanford deployed green-vested enforcers and campus police who sometimes threatened students if they violated the rules. Both, apparently, succeeded.
COVID-19 can cause symptoms that go well beyond the lungs, from strokes to organ failure. To explain these widespread injuries, researchers are studying how the virus affects the vascular system.
Former Vice President Joe Biden is now the president-elect nearly everywhere but inside the Trump administration, where the president refuses to concede and has ordered officials not to begin a formal transition. That is a particular problem for health care as the COVID-19 pandemic surges. Meanwhile, there’s good news on the vaccine front, but it’s unlikely one will arrive by winter. And the ACA was back before the Supreme Court — again. Joanne Kenen of Politico, Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal and Shefali Luthra of the 19th News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health stories of the week they think you should read, too.
From the likelihood of achy, flu-like side effects to the need for two doses, weeks apart, consumers need to know now what to expect when vaccines to prevent COVID-19 roll out.
The Trump administration hailed rapid tests as the way to halt COVID’s spread in nursing homes. A KHN analysis of federal data shows they’re not being used, as questions linger about accuracy and best practices.
Fear and uncertainty about the coronavirus have made online patient support groups fertile ground for the spread of misinformation. But some in these groups make fact-checking a part of the mission to support fellow COVID sufferers.
Crooked Media’s “America Dissected” explores the rural health crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Podcast guest KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal said: “I expect we’ll see a lot more rural hospital failures.”
The drugmaker says its mRNA vaccine worked in 90% of patients in its trial, but some observers question how long immunity will last and who will benefit.
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