Public Health

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reached out to pharmacists Wednesday to reinforce the message that people with moderate to severe immune suppression are eligible for fourth covid shots. The conference call came a day after KHN reported that immunocompromised people were being turned away by pharmacy employees unfamiliar with the latest CDC guidelines. […]

Los pacientes con sistemas inmunes debilitados, que tienen un riesgo mayor de covid-19 y sus complicaciones, dicen que las farmacias los rechazan cuando buscan dosis adicionales de las vacunas recomendadas por los funcionarios federales de salud. Alyson Smith se convirtió en elegible en enero para una cuarta dosis de la vacuna contra covid porque sus […]

ST. CHARLES, Mo. — Jamie Smith, a staffing agency nurse who loves end-of-life care, said she has been warmly welcomed by staffers and residents at Frontier Health & Rehabilitation in this conservative St. Louis suburb. That’s even though she has not been vaccinated against covid-19. But leaders of the nursing home, where 22 residents died […]

Patients with weakened immune systems — who are at high risk from covid-19 — say pharmacies are turning them away when they seek additional vaccine doses recommended by federal health officials. Alyson Smith became eligible this month for a fourth vaccine dose because her medications leave her immunocompromised. Although the Centers for Disease Control and […]

¿Qué grupo es especialmente vulnerable a los estragos de covid, incluso si está vacunado por completo y con sus refuerzos? Los adultos mayores. Sin embargo, ¿quién tendrá más dificultades para obtener pruebas caseras gratuitas para covid según el plan de la administración Biden? Sí, los adultos mayores. Desde el 15 de enero, las personas con […]

[Update on KHN impact: On Feb. 3, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced that the Biden administration would cover over-the-counter covid tests at no cost to beneficiaries of original Medicare and Medicare Advantage. Each person can receive eight free tests a month. “This is the first time that Medicare has covered an over-the-counter […]

SACRAMENTO — California is poised to become the front line of America’s vaccination wars. State lawmakers are drafting the toughest covid-19 vaccine legislation in the country, backed by a new pro-vaccine lobbying force promising to counter anti-vaccine activists who have threatened government officials and shut down public meetings across the state. Legislators want to require […]

As the omicron variant completes its sweep across the U.S., states with scarce supplies of monoclonal antibody therapies continue to use two treatments that federal health officials warn no longer work against the highly contagious version of the virus that causes covid-19. The antibody treatment now most recommended is sotrovimab from GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology, […]

In the past week, the Biden administration launched two programs that aim to get rapid covid tests into the hands of every American. But the design of both efforts disadvantages people who already face the greatest barriers to testing. From the limit placed on test orders to the languages available on websites, the programs stand […]

La administración Biden acaba de lanzar dos programas que tienen como objetivo poner pruebas rápidas de covid en manos de todos los estadounidenses. Pero el diseño de ambos esfuerzos pone en desventaja a las personas que ya enfrentan las mayores barreras para obtenerlas. Desde el límite establecido en los pedidos de prueba hasta los idiomas […]