Only One Vaccine Is OK’d for Older Teens. It’s Also the Hardest to Manage in Rural America.
As states expand covid-19 vaccine eligibility to allow shots for 16- and 17-year-olds, teens in rural America may have trouble getting them. Of the three vaccines authorized in the U.S., currently only one can go to that age group: the Pfizer-BioNTech shot. That vaccine comes in 1,170-dose packages at minimum and expires after five days […]
Virtual Care Spreads in Missouri Health System, Home to ‘Hospital Without Beds’
When Tom Becker was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat in March 2020, the 60-year-old EMS helicopter pilot from Washington, Missouri, worried he would never fly again. But his cardiologist, Dr. Christopher Allen, had served in the Air Force and knew aviation physiology. So Becker felt reassured when Allen told him he didn’t expect any problems, […]
Tras accidente de auto, paciente se estrella contra factura de $700,000 por cirugía de columna
La vida de Mark Gottlieb cambió en un instante cuando otro conductor chocó contra su auto. Se dañó cuatro vértebras de la parte superior de la columna vertebral y se destrozó seis dientes. Durante los meses que siguieron a ese accidente de enero de 2019, a Gottlieb le colocaron coronas dentales y, para el debilitante […]
After Accident, Patient Crashes Into $700,000 Bill for Spine Surgery
Mark Gottlieb’s life changed in an instant when another driver crashed into his car, damaging four vertebrae in his upper spine and smashing six teeth. In the months following that January 2019 crash, Gottlieb got the teeth crowned and, for debilitating neck pain, tried injections, chiropractic care and physical therapy. The treatments were all covered […]
California and Texas Took Different Routes to Vaccination. Who’s Ahead?
California and Texas, the country’s two most populous states, have taken radically different approaches to the pandemic and the vaccination campaign to end it. California has trumpeted its reliance on science and policies it says are aimed at improving social equity. Texas state officials have emphasized individual rights and protecting the economy, often ignoring public […]
Doctors Scramble to Understand Long Covid, but Causes and Prognosis Are Elusive
One night in March 2020, Joy Wu felt like her heart was going to explode. She tried to get up and fell down. She didn’t recognize friends’ names in her list of phone contacts. Remembering how to dial 9-1-1 took “quite a bit of time,” she recalled recently. Wu, 38, didn’t have a fever, cough […]
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Picking Up the Pace of Undoing Trump Policies
Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen on PRX. The Biden administration is speeding up the pace of efforts to undo Trump administration health policies. The two most recent: overturning a ban on fetal tissue research funded by the National Institutes of Health and canceling a last-minute extension of a Medicaid waiver for Texas. […]
Listen: A Rookie Doctor Starts Her Career, Forged by the Pandemic
On this week’s episode of “America Dissected,” host Dr. Abdul El-Sayed spoke with Dr. Paloma Marin-Nevarez, an emergency medicine resident at UCSF Fresno, and KHN senior correspondent Jenny Gold about the challenges Marin-Nevarez faced as a new doctor learning the ropes during a devastating pandemic. Each July, thousands of new physicians begin their on-the-job training […]
Censorship or Misinformation? DeSantis and YouTube Spar Over Covid Roundtable Takedown.
In early April, YouTube took down a video featuring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and a group of controversial scientists at a March 18 coronavirus roundtable. The online video platform, owned by Google, cited as its rationale that the video contained false statements about the efficacy of children’s mask-wearing. The decision has drawn public blowback on […]
Strides Against HIV/AIDS Falter, Especially in the South, as Nation Battles Covid
Facing a yearlong siege from the coronavirus, the defenses in another, older war are faltering. For the last two decades, HIV/AIDS has been held at bay by potent antiviral drugs, aggressive testing and inventive public education campaigns. But the COVID-19 pandemic has caused profound disruptions in almost every aspect of that battle, grounding outreach teams, […]