Category: Global Health Watch

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Delta Blues

Covid is back with a vengeance, with some people clamoring for booster shots while others harden their resistance to getting vaccinated at all. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration is pushing hard on drugmaker Pfizer’s request to upgrade the emergency authorization for its vaccine and give it final approval. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.

Unraveling the Mysterious Mutations That Make Delta the Most Transmissible Covid Virus Yet

Scientists are trying to piece together why the delta variant so readily infects unvaccinated Americans, spewing 1,000 times more virus particles.

Analysis: Necessary or Not, Covid Booster Shots Are Probably on the Horizon

In today’s pharmaceutical universe, a simple “safe and effective” determination by the Food and Drug Administration to approve a drug can be manipulated to sell products of questionable value. And drugmakers can profit handsomely,

Novavax’s Effort to Vaccinate the World, From Zero to Not Quite Warp Speed

Novavax is a vaccine company that, despite $2 billion in new federal and international funding, still hasn’t come through with a licensed covid vaccine. It hopes it can still help to fight the global covid scourge, but will it deliver?

New Research Finds J&J Vaccine Has Muscle Against Covid’s Delta Variant

The data is reassuring to people who got this shot.

Analysis: Why We’ll Likely Never Know Whether a Covid Lab Leak Happened in China

If international scientific sleuths are hoping to see a lab log or find a whistleblower, that sort of information won’t be revealed. In China today, it is dangerous to say what you know if it challenges the official government narrative.

The WHO Didn’t Reverse Its Position on Kids and Covid Vaccines

The World Health Organization this week updated its guidance on children and covid vaccinations — but in a different way than alleged in a viral social media post.

Hemmed In at Home, Nonprofit Hospitals Look for Profits Abroad

About three dozen elite health systems are involved in for-profit hospital projects overseas. Though the systems are exempt from U.S. taxes for providing “community benefit,” there’s limited evidence that such business ventures benefit American patients.

Analysis: Mounting Pressure on China About Covid ‘Lab Leak’ Could Backfire

Where the coronavirus originated remains a mystery and the Chinese are bucking demands to let investigators see more.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: The Return of the Public Option

Lawmakers are working on fleshing out the concept of a “public option,” a government-run or heavily regulated insurance plan that would compete with private insurance. But the details are complicated, both substantively and politically. Meanwhile, bioethicists are debating whether the U.S. should be vaccinating low-risk adolescents against covid-19 while high-risk adults in other countries are still waiting. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico and Rachana Pradhan of KHN 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.