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KHN's Julie Rovner joins The Atlantic's āSocial Distanceā podcast, hosted by Dr. James Hamblin and Maeve Higgins, to talk about President Joe Biden's support for an initiative to waive patent protection for covid vaccines and the politics of drug policy in the United States.
Democratic leaders in Congress have vowed to pass legislation to address high prescription drug prices this year, but some moderates in their own party appear to be balking. Meanwhile, younger teens are now eligible for a covid-19 vaccine and the Biden administration reinstated anti-discrimination policy for LGBTQ people in health care. Joanne Kenen of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet and Rachel Cohrs of Stat join KHNās Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.
A new survey shows that unvaccinated Hispanics are almost twice as likely as unvaccinated Blacks or whites to want a covid vaccination. But many still face a variety of access problems, ranging from fear to time squeeze.
There is no public national data source that tracks vaccination rates based on a combination of race or ethnicity as well as age. Most state-level data shows that disparities exist in vaccine rates between white people and people of color.
Latinos got hit disproportionately hard by covid-19. When faced with the choice of sending their kids back to school or keeping them in online classes, many Latino parents say their kids are safer at home.
In one northwestern Montana county where demand for covid vaccines is dropping well before widespread immunity is reached, people are split on whether the virus is a threat.
The covid pandemic drove major changes to Montana health policies, including the permanent expansion of telehealth regulations, a pullback on local public health officialsā authority and the easing of vaccination requirements for workers and students.
All agree that covid vaccines are urgently needed to stop the pandemic, but simply waiving patents fails to provide technological know-how and address supply chain challenges.
The Biden administration is bucking the drug industry and backing a waiver of covid-19 vaccine patent protections to help the rest of the world vaccinate its populations. Here at home, the Food and Drug Administration wants to ban menthol flavorings for cigarettes, setting off a fight with the tobacco industry. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Tami Luhby of CNN and Kimberly Leonard of Business Insider join KHNās Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has outsourced his way through the covid-19 pandemic, tasking his private-sector allies in Silicon Valley and the health care industry with fundamental public health duties such as testing, tracing and vaccination. Among the losers: the stateās weakened public health system.
Some immigrant groups are closing the ethnic gap on COVID-19 shots. For many Kurdish Americans, their fears about vaccination are entangled with their experiences in refugee camps after fleeing Iraq.
Pandemic lockdowns exacerbated long-standing economic pressures on pharmacies ā and forced many owner-operated shops to evolve or risk closing their doors.
With older adults vaccinated, doctors say a growing share of their covid patients are in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s, as more contagious variants circulate among people who remain unvaccinated.
California officials are optimistic they can vaccinate millions more before hitting a hard wall of vaccine resistance.
More than 200,000 doses of covid vaccine have gone to waste since December, KHN has learned. Two national pharmacy chains account for most of it.
With some 100 million Americans fully vaccinated, the U.S. is relying on a patchwork network of vaccine monitoring systems that lack the breadth and depth of large, population-based programs, experts said.
Even as the nation has moved on to vaccinating everyone 16 and older, the vast majority of people homebound due to frailty or age ā and among the most vulnerable to covidās devastation ā have not yet been vaccinated. California offers a sharp lens on the challenges.
Covid-19 vaccinations do not infect recipients with shingles or any form of herpes virus, despite some misleading headlines.
Itās 100 days into Joe Bidenās presidency and a surprisingly large number of health policies have been announced. But health is notably absent from the administrationās $1.8 trillion spending plan for American families, making it unclear how much more will get done this year. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosens its mask-wearing recommendations for those who have been vaccinated, but the new rules are confusing. Joanne Kenen of Politico, Mary Ellen McIntire of CQ Roll Call and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHNās Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, Rovner interviews KHNās Julie Appleby, who reported the latest KHN-NPR āBill of the Monthā episode.
In his first speech before a joint session of Congress, President Joe Biden argued it was time to turn the coronavirus pandemic into a historic opportunity to expand government for the benefit of a wider range of Americans, urging investments in jobs, climate change, child care, infrastructure and more.
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