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Latest KFF Health News Stories

Amid Covid Health Worker Shortage, Foreign-Trained Professionals Sit on Sidelines

KFF Health News Original

Hospitals dealing with staff shortages during the current covid surge are unable to tap into one valuable resource: foreign-trained doctors, nurses and other health workers, many with experience treating infectious diseases. Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Nevada are the only states to have eased credentialing requirements during the pandemic.

Vaccine Ramp-Up Squeezes Covid Testing and Tracing

KFF Health News Original

The ability of California health officials to multitask in a pandemic will be severely tested as they scramble to find staff for vaccination sites while maintaining testing and contact tracing.

Biden Takes the Reins, Calls for a United Front Against Covid and Other Threats

KFF Health News Original

On health care, President Joe Biden made it clear that combating the covid-19 pandemic will be his top priority. “We must set aside politics and finally face this pandemic as one nation,” he said. “We will get through this together.”

Patients Fend for Themselves to Access Highly Touted Covid Antibody Treatments

KFF Health News Original

Months after President Donald Trump credited monoclonal antibody therapy for his quick recovery from covid-19, only a trickle of the product has found its way into regular people. While hundreds of thousands of vials sit unused, sick patients who might benefit from early treatment have been left on their own to vie for access.

On Trump’s Last Full Day, Nation Records 400,000 Covid Deaths

KFF Health News Original

On the day before the inauguration of a new president, the country marks a once unthinkable milestone of 400,000 deaths. The winter surge of the pandemic claimed 100,000 Americans in just five weeks.

Are Public Health Ads Worth the Price? Not if They’re All About Fear

KFF Health News Original

Public service announcements about drug use or other public health problems often fall short, public health marketing experts say, because they incite people’s worst fears rather than giving people solutions.

Black Americans Are Getting Vaccinated at Lower Rates Than White Americans

KFF Health News Original

Black Americans are receiving covid vaccines at a much lower rate than their white peers due to a combination of mistrust and access issues, leaving them behind in the mission to vaccinate the nation’s population.

Geography Is Destiny: Dentists’ Access to Covid Shots Depends on Where They Live

KFF Health News Original

A handful of states are making dentists a lower priority than other health professionals for inoculations, even though they have their hands in people’s mouths and are exposed to aerosols that spray germs in their faces.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: On Capitol Hill, Actions Have Consequences

KFF Health News Original

Several large business groups, including health industry organizations, are cutting off contributions to Republicans who voted against the certification of Joe Biden’s election even after riots shut down the Capitol on Jan. 6. Meanwhile, the outgoing Trump administration not only approved a Medicaid block grant for Tennessee, but also made it difficult for the incoming Biden administration to undo. Joanne Kenen of Politico, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Kimberly Leonard of Business Insider join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, Rovner interviews KHN’s Victoria Knight about the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” episode.

Delicate Covid Vaccines Slow Rollout — Leading to Shots Given Out of Turn or, Worse, Wasted

KFF Health News Original

“Thaw. Rest 15 minutes. Do not shake. Do not refreeze.”Do not shake. Do not refreeze.” Moderna’s vaccine comes with complicated instructions. And both available vaccines are good for only six hours once the vial is open. So at day’s end, health workers are left to either throw out precious doses or get shots into any arm that’s available.