KHN

Techies and startups have thrown together vaccine appointment websites to address the chaotic rollout of covid shots. But software can’t replace vaccines, and for many people the sites are just another piece of the vaccination “Hunger Games.”

Even while the Senate is busy with Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, the House has gotten down to work on a covid relief bill using the budget reconciliation process. Meanwhile, the watchword for covid this week among the public is confusion — over masks, vaccines and just about everything else science-related. Joanne Kenen of Politico, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, the panelists recommend their favorite “health policy valentines” along with their favorite health policy stories they think you should read, too.

Community health clinics are key to getting more Black and Hispanic Americans vaccinated, federal officials say. In Nashville, a vaccination push at federally funded clinics is underway.

The measures would impose taxes on increases in the price of drugs that don’t reflect improved clinical value and set the rates paid by state-run and commercial health plans to a benchmark based on prices in Canada.

Masks imitating the real thing are flooding U.S. ports, and authorities can hardly keep pace.

Lawmakers across the U.S. are pushing bills to restrict transgender kids from participating in sports and ban doctors from treating them.

Congressman Steve Scalise claimed during a Fox News interview that President Joe Biden was allowing immigrants to “jump the line” ahead of Americans for vaccination. But the administration merely has said everyone should have access to the vaccine, regardless of immigration status, and get vaccinated when eligible.

Tribes across the U.S. have turned to social media and the internet as leaders worry about covid-19’s threat to their culture and elders.

Reaching people who may have been in contact with covid patients has helped cut the number of infections, but these tracing efforts become less effective as the number of cases grows.

Concerns arising in western North Carolina provide a window into the challenges facing health workers across the country as they seek to persuade vulnerable populations to be inoculated against covid.

Hospitals across the country are seeing rising admissions for alcoholic liver disease, which encompasses hepatitis, cirrhosis and other conditions.

As the pandemic brings long-standing health disparities into sharper view, community health workers are being asked to help the public health response. This fast-growing workforce helps fill the gaps between health care providers and low-income communities by offering education, advocacy and outreach.

Arthur and Maggie Kelley of St. Louis died 30 days apart. Maggie died of complications of dementia in November. Arthur, who had moved into her nursing home to be with her, died a month later of covid. Their family held a double funeral.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that decision-making about the covid vaccine is complicated and multifaceted, which means persuading people to say yes will be, too.

Multiple-gene panel tests are frequently offered to patients at risk for diseases such as cancer that can assess more than 80 genes. But in screening a wide variety of genes, doctors might see a variant that hasn’t yet been deciphered and be unable to explain its significance, leaving patients with concerns and no answers.

In rural Alpine County, where snowbound mountain passes isolate small towns, distributing the covid vaccine is a community effort. Unlike in many urban areas where residents jockey for limited appointments, the pace of vaccinations here is strong and steady.

Americans’ frustrations surrounding the amount of available covid vaccine hinges on several factors — not the least of which is that demand far exceeds supply.