Ohio’s Amish Suffered a Lot From Covid, but Vaccines Are Still a Hard Sell
The Amish communities of northeastern Ohio engage in textbook communal living. Families eat, work and go to church together, and through the pandemic, mask-wearing and physical distancing have been spotty. That has meant that these communities bore a high rate of infection and death. Despite this, health officials are struggling to encourage residents to get […]
Doctors More Likely to Prescribe Opioids to Covid ‘Long Haulers,’ Raising Addiction Fears
Covid survivors are at risk from a separate epidemic of opioid addiction, given the high rate of painkillers being prescribed to these patients, health experts say. A new study in Nature found alarmingly high rates of opioid use among covid survivors with lingering symptoms at Veterans Health Administration facilities. About 10% of covid survivors develop […]
You Don’t Have to Suffer to Benefit From Covid Vaccination — But Some Prefer It
If you think vaccination is an ordeal now, consider the 18th-century version. After having pus from a smallpox boil scratched into your arm, you would be subject to three weeks of fever, sweats, chills, bleeding and purging with dangerous medicines, accompanied by hymns, prayers and hell-fire sermons by dour preachers. That was smallpox vaccination, back […]
Watch: What Happens When Car and Health Insurance Collide
“CBS This Morning,” in collaboration with KHN and NPR, tells the story of Mark Gottlieb, a marketing consultant in Little Ferry, New Jersey, who faced more than $700,000 in medical bills after surgery on his spine. Gottlieb was injured in a car accident, and, despite having the maximum amount of personal injury protection in his […]
Evaluating President Joe Biden’s First 100 Days in Office
In the first 100 days, new presidents try to turn campaign promises into quick legislative victories, defuse lingering crises, set themselves apart from their predecessor and set a leadership tone for the next four years — all while avoiding blunders that could destroy their momentum. So how is President Joe Biden doing as he approaches […]
Pandemic Imperiled Non-English Speakers More Than Others
In March 2020, just weeks into the covid-19 pandemic, the incident command center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston was scrambling to understand this deadly new disease. It appeared to be killing more Black and brown patients than whites. For Latinos, there was an additional warning sign: language. Patients who didn’t speak much, or […]
‘Red Flag’ Gun Laws Get Another Look After Indiana, Colorado Shootings
On New Year’s Eve 2017, sheriff’s deputies in the Denver suburb of Highlands Ranch responded to a domestic disturbance. Before the night was over, four officers had been shot and Douglas County Sheriff’s Deputy Zackari Parrish III was dead. The gunman was a 37-year-old man with a history of psychotic episodes whose family had previously […]
‘We’re Coming for You’: For Public Health Officials, a Year of Threats and Menace
[Editor’s note: This article contains strong language that readers might find offensive or disturbing.] SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Calif. — Dr. Gail Newel looks back on the past year and struggles to articulate exactly when the public bellows of frustration around her covid-related health orders morphed into something darker and more menacing. Certainly, there was that […]
From Hospital Profits to Gender Gaps, Journalists Are on the Case
KHN freelancer Christine Spolar discussed how during the pandemic the nation’s richest hospitals and health systems profited after accepting the lion’s share of the federal health care bailout grant with WESA’s “The Confluence” on Tuesday. Click here to hear Spolar on WESA Read “Despite Covid, Many Wealthy Hospitals Had a Banner Year With Federal Bailout” […]
Michigan’s Outbreak Worries Scientists. Will Conservative Outposts Keep Pandemic Rolling?
[UPDATED on April 26] When Kathryn Watkins goes shopping these days, she doesn’t bring her three young children. There are just too many people not wearing masks in her southern Michigan town of Hillsdale. At some stores, “not even the employees are wearing them anymore,” said Watkins, who estimates about 30% of shoppers wear masks, […]