Category: Kaiser Health News
As 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. by Christina Jewett and Robert Lewis Wednesday, December 23, 2020 This story also ran on…
Take it from an expert: Fauci’s hierarchy of safety during COVID
Elisabeth Rosenthal Thursday, November 19, 2020 As a health journalist, a physician and a former foreign correspondent who lived through SARS in Beijing, I often get questions from friends, colleagues and people I don’t even know…
People proving to be weakest link for apps tracking COVID exposure
Rae Ellen Bichell November 19, 2020 The app builders had planned for pranksters, ensuring that only people with verified COVID-19 cases could trigger an alert. They’d planned for heavy criticism about privacy, in many cases…
Starving Seniors: how America fails to feed its aging
Millions of seniors across the country quietly go hungry as the safety net designed to catch them frays. Nearly 8% of Americans 60 and older were “food insecure” in 2017. Laura Ungar and Trudy Lieberman September…
Biden plan to lower medicare eligibility age to 60 faces hostility from hospitals
“It is hard to find a reform idea that is more popular than opening up Medicare” Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News Wednesday, November 11, 2020 Of his many plans to expand insurance coverage, President-elect Joe Biden’s…
Coming abortion fight could threaten birth control, too
by Julie Rovner, Kaiser Health News Friday, November 6 Abortion opponents were among those most excited by the addition of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. And they had good reason to be. As…
‘It’s science, stupid’: A school subject emerges as a hot-button political issue
Victoria Knight October 30, 2020 At the top of Dr. Hiral Tipirneni’s to-do list if she wins her congressional race: work with other elected officials to encourage mask mandates and to beef up COVID-19 testing…
Older COVID patients battle ‘brain fog,’ weakness and emotional turmoil
by Judith Graham October 20, 2020 “Lord, give me back my memory.” For months, as Marilyn Walters has struggled to recover from COVID-19, she has repeated this prayer day and night. Like other older adults who’ve…
Most home health aides ‘Can’t afford not to work’ — Even when lacking PPE
Home health aides flattened the curve by keeping the most vulnerable patients — seniors, the disabled, the infirm — out of hospitals. But they’ve done it mostly at poverty wages and without overtime pay, hazard pay,…
COVID takes challenge of tracking infectious college students to new level
by Lauren Weber October 12, 2020 As the return of college students to campuses has fueled as many as 3,000 COVID-19 cases a day, keeping track of them is a logistical nightmare for local health departments…
Hard lives made harder by COVID: homeless endure a ‘Slow-moving train wreck’
This was supposed to be the year California finally did something about its homelessness epidemic. COVID-19 upended that promise. by Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Angela Hart October 8, 2020 CALEXICO, California — The message wasn’t lost…
White House testing regimen did not protect the President
Rachana Pradhan and Lauren Weber and Liz Szabo, Kaiser Health News Friday, October 2 President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis is raising fresh questions about the White House’s strategy for testing and containing the virus for a…
Thousands of minks dead as COVID outbreak escalates on Utah farms
by JoNel Aleccia, Kaiser Health News Friday, October 2 Thousands of minks at Utah fur farms have died because of the coronavirus in the past 10 days, forcing nine sites in three counties to quarantine, but…
The Mask Hypocrisy: How COVID memos contradict the White House’s public face
The mixed messages and ensuing confusion leave governors, and often state and local health officials, holding the bag of political consequences. Lauren Weber and Katheryn Houghton October 1, 2020 While the president and vice president forgo…
Post-COVID clinics get jump-start from patients with lingering illness
by Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News September 30, 2020 Clarence Troutman survived a two-month hospital stay with COVID-19, then went home in early June. But he’s far from over the disease, still suffering from limited endurance,…
Signs of an ‘October Vaccine Surprise’ alarm career scientists
Liz Szabo, Kaiser Health News and JoNel Aleccia, Kaiser Health News September 21, 2020 President Donald Trump, who seems intent on announcing a COVID-19 vaccine before Election Day, could legally authorize a vaccine over the objections…
It’s tough to tell COVID from smoke inhalation symptoms — and flu season’s coming
by Mark Kreidler, KHN September 16, 2020 The patients walk into Dr. Melissa Marshall’s community clinics in Northern California with the telltale symptoms. They’re having trouble breathing. It may even hurt to inhale. They’ve got…
Most adults wary of taking any vaccine approved before the election
Jordan Rau, Kaiser Health News September 10, 2020 The public is deeply skeptical about any coronavirus vaccine approved before the November election, and only 42% would be willing to get a vaccine in that scenario, according…
Cities and states look to crack down on ‘less-lethal’ weapons used by police
by Jay Hancock, Kaiser Health News and Kevin McCoy, USA TODAY and Donovan Slack, USA TODAY Thursday, September 3 Following nationwide protests against police brutality in which law enforcement officers wounded or blinded protesters, state and…
As threat of Valley Fever grows beyond the Southwest, push is on for vaccine
by Jim Robbins, KHN September 4, 2020 One New Year’s Day, Rob Purdie woke up with a headache that wouldn’t quit. Vision problems, body aches and a slight fever followed. At the emergency room, the Bakersfield,…
Two Navajo sisters who were inseparable died of COVID just weeks apart
by Shoshana Dubnow August 26, 2020 Cheryl and Corrina Thinn were almost joined at the hip. The sisters, both members of the Navajo Nation, shared an office at Arizona’s Tuba City Regional Health Care. Cheryl conducted…
Swab, spit, stay home? College Coronavirus testing plans are all over the map
As with the uncoordinated and chaotic national response to the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education has no clear guidance or set of standards to adhere to from the federal government or anywhere else. Policies for reentry onto…
Trump is sending fast, cheap COVID tests to nursing homes — But there’s a hitch
Point-of-care antigen tests distributed to nursing homes have been hailed by the Trump administration as a tool to root out asymptomatic carriers who might still infect others. But experts say the approach could add cost and…
In Arizona race, McSally makes health care pledge at odds with track record
“Of course I will always protect those with preexisting conditions. Always,” — McSally in a TV ad released June 22. Martha McSally, who was appointed by the governor to take over John McCain’s Senate seat in…
