Letters to the Editor
Readers and Tweeters Fight Stigma and Salute Front-Line Workers
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
Public Health
1,541 - 1,560 of 3,703 Results
-
-
鈥榃e鈥檙e Not Controlling It in Our Schools鈥: Covid Safety Lapses Abound Across US
As President Biden calls for more support to help schools hold in-person classes, public health experts say schools can be relatively safe if they take well-known steps to prevent covid. But a KHN investigation shows many districts and states have ignored health advice or written their own questionable safety rules for schools.
By Laura Ungar -
Big Business Boosts Vaccine Effort, but It鈥檚 鈥楥omplex Choreography鈥 to Get Shots in Arms聽
Corporations like Starbucks, Honeywell, Microsoft, Costco and Google are lining up to help with vaccine logistics. But the problem of the moment is supply, not systems.
By Will Stone -
Vaccine Ramp-Up Squeezes Covid Testing and Tracing
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.
-
Anti-Vaccine Activists Peddle Theories That Covid Shots Are Deadly, Undermining Vaccination
Thousands of people died shortly after inoculation, but their deaths weren鈥檛 related to getting a vaccine.
By Liz Szabo -
Amid Covid Health Worker Shortage, Foreign-Trained Professionals Sit on Sidelines
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.
-
KHN鈥檚 鈥榃hat the Health?鈥: The Biden Health Agenda
President Joe Biden is wasting no time getting to work. On his first day in office, Biden signed a series of executive orders addressing the covid pandemic, promising more to come. But even with Democrats taking the barest majority in the Senate, the new president鈥檚 ambitious proposals on covid and other health issues could be in for a rough ride. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Tami Luhby of CNN and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN鈥檚 Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for 鈥渆xtra credit,鈥 the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read too.
-
Yurts, Igloos and Pop-Up Domes: How Safe Is ‘Outside’ Restaurant Dining This Winter?
All kinds of new structures are popping up to extend the outdoor dining season. Some are safer than others.
By Will Stone -
Door to Door in Miami鈥檚 Little Havana to Build Trust in Testing, Vaccination
It's time-consuming but worthwhile: Residents respond to messages about Covid testing and vaccines when outreach teams speak their language and make a personal connection.
-
After a Decade of Lobbying, ALS Patients Gain Faster Access to Disability Payments
In late December, then-President Donald Trump signed a law that eliminates 鈥 only for people with Lou Gehrig鈥檚 disease 鈥 the required five-month waiting period before benefits begin under the Social Security Disability Insurance program. Gaining SSDI also gives these patients immediate Medicare health coverage.
-
Biden Takes the Reins, Calls for a United Front Against Covid and Other Threats
On health care, President Joe Biden made it clear that combating the covid-19 pandemic will be his top priority. 鈥淲e must set aside politics and finally face this pandemic as one nation,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e will get through this together.鈥
By Julie Rovner -
Patients Fend for Themselves to Access Highly Touted Covid Antibody Treatments
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.
-
Biden鈥檚 Covid Challenge: 100 Million Vaccinations in the First 100 Days. It Won鈥檛 Be Easy.
But keeping campaign promises regarding the nation鈥檚 covid response will go beyond stepping up the rollout of the vaccines.
-
California Is Overriding Its Limits on Nurse Workloads as Covid Surges
As covid patients flood California emergency rooms, hospitals are increasingly desperate to find enough staffers to care for them all. But some nurses worry hospitals will use the pandemic as an excuse to permanently roll back their hard-won nurse-patient ratios.
-
Advocates View Health Care as Key to Driving LGBTQ Rights Conversation
A state ban preventing local governments from enacting nondiscrimination ordinances expired Dec. 1, opening the door for a new wave of local nondiscrimination laws.
-
On Trump’s Last Full Day, Nation Records 400,000 Covid Deaths
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.
By Will Stone -
Are Public Health Ads Worth the Price? Not if They鈥檙e All About Fear
Public service announcements about drug use or other public health problems often fall short, public health marketing experts say, because they incite people鈥檚 worst fears rather than giving people solutions.
By Eric Berger -
Black Americans Are Getting Vaccinated at Lower Rates Than White Americans
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鈥檚 population.
By Hannah Recht and Lauren Weber -
Biden Terms Vaccine Rollout 鈥楢 Dismal Failure鈥 as He Unveils Pandemic Response Plan
President-elect Joe Biden has delivered two speeches within the past 24 hours focused on his ambitious plans to address the 鈥渢win crises鈥 of the covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the economy.
-
CVS and Walgreens Under Fire for Slow Pace of Vaccination in Nursing Homes
A federal program that sends retail pharmacists into nursing homes to vaccinate residents and workers has been hindered by bureaucratic hurdles and scheduling woes.
By Rachel Bluth and Lauren Weber