A Disabled Activist Speaks Out About Feeling 鈥楧isposable鈥
Alice Wong, a writer and organizer in San Francisco, says the isolation and loss of the pandemic have shown society what it鈥檚 like to be disabled.
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Alice Wong, a writer and organizer in San Francisco, says the isolation and loss of the pandemic have shown society what it鈥檚 like to be disabled.
As omicron surges, more nursing homes are facing a double whammy: Lab tests are taking too long, and fast antigen tests are in short supply.
Many parents of children too young for vaccines are exhausted. Some feel isolated and even forgotten by those who just want to move on even as omicron continues to sweep through parts of the country.
Native foodways of hunting, fishing, gathering, and farming have been under threat since the arrival of Europeans. In this episode, hear how Indigenous people are reclaiming their food traditions to improve community health.
The need for mental health services on campus, which was already rising, has skyrocketed during the pandemic, with many students undergoing grave psychological crises. Colleges say they often lack the means to offer competitive salaries to therapists.
Omicron infections are surging in residential care facilities, causing massive sickouts among staff members and an uptick in hospitalizations and deaths. The latest visitor restrictions and testing requirements are also compounding the isolation that residents have suffered for almost two years.
Say you鈥檙e on Day 6 鈥 or 8 or 10 鈥 of a symptomatic covid infection, and a rapid antigen test comes back positive. Could the test just be detecting bits and pieces of dead virus? If you鈥檙e a petri dish, sure. But if you鈥檙e a human, chances are you鈥檙e still infectious. Virologists weigh in.
The omicron variant upended a system in which states shared rapid covid tests with those that needed them more. Cooperation has turned into competition as states run out of supplies, limit which organizations get them, or hold on to expired kits as a last resort.
With its highest-in-the-nation vaccination rates, Vermont offers a glimpse of what鈥檚 possible as the U.S. learns to live with coronavirus.
Temporary subsidies helped boost enrollment under the Affordable Care Act to a record 14.5 million, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. But unless Democrats in Congress extend those subsidies, many of those new enrollees will be in for a rude surprise just ahead of midterm elections. Meanwhile, the need to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer further crowds an already tight legislative schedule. Joanne Kenen of Politico and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Anna Edney of Bloomberg News join KHN鈥檚 Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Diana Greene Foster, author of 鈥淭he Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having 鈥 Or Being Denied 鈥 An Abortion.鈥
KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
The health agency and the White House acted in the wake of a KHN story about pharmacists refusing to give shots to patients with moderate to severe immune suppression.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly changed its guidance to allow an extra shot in certain cases, but some pharmacy personnel are confused about who is eligible.
Missouri has the worst covid-19 vaccination rate for nursing home health care workers in the nation. There, the federal mandate for workers to get vaccinated 鈥 upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court 鈥 reveals the problems that operators have hiring staff, keeping them, and providing decent care.
The laws governing Medicare don鈥檛 provide coverage for self-administered diagnostic tests, which is precisely what the rapid antigen tests are and why they are an important tool for containing the pandemic.
Anti-vaccination activists say California鈥檚 Democratic lawmakers are helping strengthen their movement nationally by pushing for tougher vaccine requirements 鈥 without exemptions for religious or personal beliefs. But a new pro-vaccine lobbying force is vowing to fight back.
The top 12 states using antibody therapies produced by Regeneron and Lilly 鈥 which research shows don鈥檛 work against the omicron variant 鈥 include several Southern states with some of the nation鈥檚 lowest vaccination rates, but also California, which ranks among the top 20 for fully vaccinated residents.
Two rapid-testing initiatives the Biden administration released in the past week are inaccessible to some residents of multifamily housing, people who don鈥檛 speak English well, or those without internet access.
Disasters have previously prompted special enrollment periods in California, Maine, and the South. Now, Colorado is extending the state insurance marketplace sign-up period by two months.
Telling insurance companies to pay for rapid covid-19 tests is just the latest covid-related cost the federal government expects them to bear. But who really ends up paying for it?
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