Public Health
With Pandemic Surging, Ohio Gov. DeWine Dials Back His Aggressive Response
Eric Shanteau didn’t know he was about to create a viral pandemic meme when he made a cutout of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s head with two fingers pointing at his eyes, photographed the smiling visage in various strategic, comedic locations around the Toledo suburb of Maumee, and then posted the images online. He also didn’t […]
It’s Time to Scare People About COVID
I still remember exactly where I was sitting decades ago, during the short film shown in class: For a few painful minutes, we watched a woman talking mechanically, raspily through a hole in her throat, pausing occasionally to gasp for air. The public service message: This is what can happen if you smoke. I had […]
A Child’s Death in the Heartland Changes Community Views About COVID
WASHINGTON, Mo. — In August, local officials in this small city an hour west of St. Louis voted against requiring residents to wear masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. On Nov. 23, with COVID cases surging and the local hospital overflowing, the City Council brought a mask order back for another vote. As […]
Senate Republicans Throw the Brakes on Timing for Becerra Hearings
Senate Republicans are signaling they will delay considering President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, threatening to slow the Biden administration’s response to the pandemic that has killed more than 283,000 Americans. On Monday, Republican spokespeople for the committees responsible for vetting HHS nominations said the Senate may not […]
‘An Arm and a Leg’: Obamacare Alum Andy Slavitt Takes Stock of the COVID Pandemic — So Far
Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen. Andy Slavitt has spent much of 2020 talking with almost everybody who knows anything about the COVID-19 pandemic — and sharing what he learns in real time, first on Twitter, then on his pandemic podcast, “In the Bubble.” To do our own podcast episode about what we’ve […]
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Who Will Run the Biden Health Effort?
Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen on PRX. The quadrennial guessing game about who will get what health job in a new presidential administration has taken on a new urgency in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage. Meanwhile, as two promising vaccine candidates inch closer to approval, the federal government is […]
OSHA Let Employers Decide Whether to Report Health Care Worker Deaths. Many Didn’t.
As Walter Veal cared for residents at the Ludeman Developmental Center in suburban Chicago, he saw the potential future of his grandson, who has autism. So he took it on himself not just to bathe and feed the residents, which was part of the job, but also to cut their hair, run to the store […]
How Pharma Money Colors Operation Warp Speed’s Quest to Defeat COVID
April 16 was a big day for Moderna, a Massachusetts biotech company on the verge of becoming a front-runner in the U.S. government’s race for a coronavirus vaccine. It had received roughly half a billion dollars in federal funding to develop a COVID shot that might be used on millions of Americans. Thirteen days after […]
After Kid’s Minor Bike Accident, Major Bill Sets Legal Wheels in Motion
Adam Woodrum was out for a bike ride with his wife and kids on July 19 when his then 9-year-old son, Robert, crashed. “He cut himself pretty bad, and I could tell right away he needed stitches,” said Woodrum. Because they were on bikes, he called the fire department in Carson City, Nevada. “They were […]
Surging LA
March 2020 (Heidi de Marco/KHN) November 2020: Cars wait at the corner of Hollywood and Highland, a bustling intersection that was deserted in March. Some shops on Hollywood Boulevard are open to the public, but many remain shuttered. (Heidi de Marco/KHN) On a Monday afternoon in March, four days after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued the […]