Category: Kaiser Health News

Which Companies Aren’t Exiting Russia? Big Pharma

U.S. and global drug manufacturers invested in Russia’s sizable pharmaceutical industry contend international humanitarian law requires they continue manufacturing and selling their products there, even while condemning the Ukraine invasion. Not everyone agrees.

Two Years In, Covid Leaves Montana Public Health Officials Feeling ‘Watched’

Montanans engage in plenty of spirited political disagreements. But debates about covid-19, public health, and personal liberties have reached a fever pitch, tugging at tightknit towns and making some residents wonder how their communities will survive.

The CDC’s New Guidelines on Covid Risk and Masking Elicit Mixed Feelings

The agency’s updated recommendations lower the level of covid risk for most of the country and therefore the need to mask. But some experts question the strategy.

One California University Has Unified Town and Gown to Fight Covid. Why Haven’t Others?

The University of California-Davis has spent close to $50 million preventing the spread of covid on campus — and among residents and workers in the adjacent city of Davis. By most accounts, this town-gown experiment has paid off nicely.

The NFL Has Been Using an Unproven Measure to Get Players With Covid Back on the Field Fast

Doctors and scientists are debating whether a little-known measure in covid testing should be used to distinguish who is infectious from who isn’t. The NFL adopted the practice, but laboratory professionals caution against its use.

Watch: California’s Top Health Adviser on Learning to Live With Covid

KHN Senior Correspondent Samantha Young joined California Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly for an engaging conversation about how California moves forward in an environment in which covid persists, but at more manageable levels.

Patients Divided Over Alzheimer’s Drug: Is It a ‘Risk I’m Willing to Take’ or Just a ‘Magic Pill’?

Medicare has proposed limiting coverage of Aduhelm, the costly new drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease, and several prominent groups representing patients and their families are pressing the program to make it more widely available. But among individuals facing the disease, the outlook is more nuanced.

Charts Paint a Grim Picture 2 Years Into the Coronavirus Pandemic

The on-off nature of the pandemic “has led to a lot of the confusion and grumpiness,” says one expert. Another compares it to the exhaustion of the American public when hearing body counts during the Vietnam War.

When Teens Blow Off Parents’ Pleas to Get Vaccinated, the Consequences Can Be Deadly

Kennedy Stonum, a 17-year-old high school junior, resisted getting vaccinated against covid-19, as did 20-year-old Tyler Gilreath, whose mother had nagged him for months to get the shots. Both died.

$35 Insulin Cap Is Welcome, Popular, and Bipartisan. But Congress May Not Pass It Anyway.

Spun off from the ailing but not-quite-dead Build Back Better legislation, a popular proposal to cap out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 a month faces tough political realities that could kill it.