In Search of a Baby, I Got Covid Instead
As the pandemic raged, I made dozens of visits to a fertility clinic. Did I catch covid on one of those visits? I’ll never know, but the guilt is still there.
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KHN
Vaccination Disarray Leaves Seniors Confused About When They Can Get a Shot
As covid cases and deaths soar, it’s difficult to get up-to-date, reliable information about inoculations, and many older adults don’t know where to turn for help. Navigating Aging columnist Judith Graham answers questions from several readers.
Read MoreDelicate Covid Vaccines Slow Rollout — Leading to Shots Given Out of Turn or, Worse, Wasted
“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.
Read More‘Last Responders’ Brace for Surge in Covid Deaths Across US
In some parts of the country, the surge in covid cases is overwhelming coroners, morgues, funeral homes and religious leaders. It has required ingenuity and even changed the rituals of honoring the dead.
Read MoreChildren’s Hospitals Are Partly to Blame as Superbugs Increasingly Attack Kids
A growing body of research shows that overuse and misuse of antibiotics in children’s hospitals is helping fuel superbugs, which typically strike frail seniors but are increasingly infecting kids. And the pandemic is making things worse.
Read MoreHeading Off the Next Pandemic
As long as humans encroach on nature, pandemics are inevitable — making it important to concentrate resources in areas where people and wildlife are linked.
Read MoreMany Health Plans Now Must Cover Full Cost of Expensive HIV Prevention Drugs
Most private insurance will be required to cover drugs, like Truvada, that offer protection against HIV infection, without making plan members share the cost.
Read MoreHospital Prices Just Got a Lot More Transparent. What Does This Mean for You?
Under a rule that kicked in Jan. 1, hospitals are required to make public the prices they negotiate with insurers. That’s a lot more information than was previously required, which was only the posting of “chargemasters” — the hospital-generated list prices that few consumers or health plans actually pay.
Read MoreEureka! Two Vaccines Work — But What About the Also-Rans in the Pharma Arms Race?
How two effective vaccines on the market make it so much harder to quickly test any competing vaccines.
Read MoreCovid ‘Decimated Our Staff’ as the Pandemic Ravages Health Workers of Color
Covid-19 has taken an outsize toll on Black and Hispanic Americans — and those disparities extend to medical workers.
Read MoreBlack Women Find Healing (But Sometimes Racism, Too) in the Outdoors
A Colorado woman formed an adventure group to encourage other Black women to enjoy the outdoors, and now it has chapters across the U.S. and Canada. Yet many Black adventure seekers say they often face racism when partaking in healthy outdoor activities.
Read More‘An Arm and a Leg’: A Look Back at 2020 — What We Learned and Where We’re Headed
T.K. Dutes — a former nurse who is now a radio host and podcast-maker — interviewed ‘An Arm and a Leg’ host Dan Weissmann about what he learned in 2020, and what’s ahead for the show.
Read MoreChildren’s Hospitals Grapple With Wave of Mental Illness
The disruption to daily life caused by the pandemic has increased the number of children seeking mental health care, further straining a system that already struggled to meet the need.
Read MoreLive Free or Die if You Must, Say Colorado Urbanites — But Not in My Hospital
In a fracas between a largely rural county and neighboring cities, class and politics are just as relevant as the coronavirus. People are getting “stupid and mean,” as one mayor put it.
Read MoreVideo: The Healthy Nurse Who Died at 40 on the Covid Front Lines: ‘She Was the Best Mom I Ever Had’
Yolanda Coar was 40 when she died of COVID-19 in August 2020 in Augusta, Georgia. She was also a nurse manager, and one of nearly 3,000 frontline workers who have died in the U.S. fighting this virus, according to an exclusive investigation by The Guardian and KHN.
Read MoreSeniors Face Crushing Drug Costs as Congress Stalls on Capping Medicare Out-Of-Pockets
While many private insurers cap what members pay in health costs, Medicare does not. Democrats and Republicans in Congress have proposed annual limits ranging from $2,000 to $3,100. But there’s disagreement about how to pay for that cost cap.
Read MoreAs the Terror of COVID Struck, Health Care Workers Struggled to Survive. Thousands Lost the Fight.
At least 2,900 health workers have died since the pandemic began. Many were minorities with the highest levels of patient contact.
Read MoreMore Than 2,900 Health Care Workers Died This Year — And the Government Barely Kept Track
The National Academy of Sciences cites journalists’ “Lost on the Frontline” project in a push to expand federal tracking of worker fatalities.
Read MoreAnalysis: Some Said the Vaccine Rollout Would Be a ‘Nightmare.’ They Were Right.
There are already signs that the distribution of the COVID vaccines will be messy, confusing and chaotic.
Read MoreIn Fast-Moving Pandemic, Health Officials Try to Change Minds at Warp Speed
It typically takes years of persuasion to change habits in the name of health safety. Local officials who are stuck with the responsibility of enforcing statewide pandemic-related mandates are trying to transform behavior fast.
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