Category: COVID-19

What the Slowing Vaccine Rates Mean for One Rural Montana County

In one northwestern Montana county where demand for covid vaccines is dropping well before widespread immunity is reached, people are split on whether the virus is a threat.

Masks at the Campfire: Summer Camps for Kids With Medical Needs Adapt to Covid

Camp Ho Mita Koda, an Ohio camp for children with diabetes, plans to host in-person camp this year despite the pandemic. It’s unusual, especially given that children under 12 likely won’t be able to get covid vaccines for months and many who attend medically focused camps could be especially vulnerable to serious covid complications. But these camps are important not just for the kids, but also for parents.

5 Things to Know About Health Care Changes in Montana

The covid pandemic drove major changes to Montana health policies, including the permanent expansion of telehealth regulations, a pullback on local public health officials’ authority and the easing of vaccination requirements for workers and students.

This Small Canadian Drugmaker Wants to Make J&J Vaccines for Poor Nations. It Needs More Than a Patent Waiver.

All agree that covid vaccines are urgently needed to stop the pandemic, but simply waiving patents fails to provide technological know-how and address supply chain challenges.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Sharing Vaccines With the World

The Biden administration is bucking the drug industry and backing a waiver of covid-19 vaccine patent protections to help the rest of the world vaccinate its populations. Here at home, the Food and Drug Administration wants to ban menthol flavorings for cigarettes, setting off a fight with the tobacco industry. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Tami Luhby of CNN and Kimberly Leonard of Business Insider join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.

Salesforce, Google, Facebook. How Big Tech Undermines California’s Public Health System.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has outsourced his way through the covid-19 pandemic, tasking his private-sector allies in Silicon Valley and the health care industry with fundamental public health duties such as testing, tracing and vaccination. Among the losers: the state’s weakened public health system.

For Kurdish Americans in Nashville, a Beloved Leader’s Death Prompts Vaccine Push

Some immigrant groups are closing the ethnic gap on COVID-19 shots. For many Kurdish Americans, their fears about vaccination are entangled with their experiences in refugee camps after fleeing Iraq.

Hit by Higher Prices for Gear, Doctors and Dentists Want Insurers to Pay

The costs of personal protective equipment and disinfecting offices while seeing fewer patients have some doctors and dentists demanding that insurance companies step up.

Covid ‘Doesn’t Discriminate by Age’: Serious Cases on the Rise in Younger Adults

With older adults vaccinated, doctors say a growing share of their covid patients are in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s, as more contagious variants circulate among people who remain unvaccinated.

As Schools Spend Millions on Air Purifiers, Experts Warn of Overblown Claims and Harm to Children

A KHN investigation found that more than 2,000 schools have spent millions of dollars for systems, lured by air purifier companies’ claims that experts say mislead or obscure the potential for harm from toxic ozone.