Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen on PRX. President Joe Biden has said he still wants a bipartisan bill to provide the next round of covid relief. But in case that doesn’t happen, House committees this week got down to work on a budget reconciliation bill that could pass the Senate with a […]
As the pandemic sends thousands of recovering alcoholics into relapse, hospitals across the country have reported dramatic increases in alcohol-related admissions for critical diseases like alcoholic hepatitis and liver failure. Alcoholism-related liver disease was a growing problem even before the pandemic, with 15 million people diagnosed with the condition around the country, and with hospitalizations […]
Contact tracing, a critical part of efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus, has fallen behind in recent months as covid-19 cases have soared. President Joe Biden had pledged to change that. Biden proposes hiring 100,000 people nationwide as part of a new public health jobs corps. They would help with contact tracing and […]
Kim Wagenaar has been preparing to bring covid-19 vaccines to western North Carolina for months. She’s signed up the community health center she operates in Asheville to receive and distribute the doses. She’s ordered a subzero freezer to store the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and transport it to rural counties. She’s also allocated her staff between covid […]
“Now he [Biden] is saying that people who came here illegally can jump ahead of other Americans who have been waiting to get the vaccine.” Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) During a Feb. 2 interview on Fox News, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) claimed President Joe Biden was allowing unauthorized immigrants to move ahead of American citizens […]
CONCORD, N.C. — It had been months since Tremellia Hobbs had an excuse to bring out the pompoms. Before the pandemic, they were a crowd favorite at movie nights and bingo tournaments that Hobbs organized as activities director at the Brian Center Health & Retirement/Cabarrus nursing home. On Jan. 14, she finally had a reason. […]
WOLF POINT, Mont. — Lawrence Wetsit misses the days when his people would gather by the hundreds and sing the songs that all Assiniboine children are expected to learn by age 15. “We can’t have ceremony without memorizing all of the songs, songs galore,” he said. “We’re not supposed to record them: We have to […]
Kaitlyn Romoser first caught covid-19 in March, likely on a trip to Denmark and Sweden, just as the scope of the pandemic was becoming clear. Romoser, who is 23 and a laboratory researcher in College Station, Texas, tested positive and had a few days of mild, coldlike symptoms. In the weeks that followed, she bounced […]
WOODFORDS, Calif. — In the winter, the roughly three-hour drive from Alpine County’s main health clinic in Woodfords to the remote enclave of Bear Valley winds along snowy two-lane roads and over 8,000-foot mountain passes, circumventing the more direct route, which is closed for the season. So to get a box of the frozen Moderna […]
Arthur Kelley could barely raise his voice above a whisper last fall when he told a nursing assistant he never wanted his wife, Maggie, to be alone. After almost 60 years of marriage, five children and a lifetime filled with more victories than defeat, Kelley wanted to be there for his ailing wife, even if […]
