Category: NPR

Getting COVID-19 tests and vaccine to essential workers on commercial farms and in meatpacking plants requires more than a pop-up clinic miles away. A positive test can be financially devastating.

Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted to endorse the emergency use of a single dose of a vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson. A study showed it was 66% effective in the U.S.

Obesity now qualifies patients for a COVID-19 vaccine in some states. NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks with writer Emma Specter on why people should get the vaccine, though BMI is a faulty indicator of health.

A student sought counseling help after panicking over a tuition bill. A weeklong stay in a psychiatric hospital followed — along with a $3,413 bill. The hospital soft-pedaled its charity care policy.

Another COVID-19 vaccine may soon be available. The Food and Drug Administration has conducted an evaluation of the application from Johnson & Johnson for emergency use authorization for its vaccine.

The concierge healthcare provider One Medical has been allowing ineligible people to receive COVID-19 vaccines, according to documents leaked to NPR. The company denies this claim.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky says scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were “muzzled” and “diminished” by the Trump team, especially during the pandemic. She aims to fix that.

As California’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra fought Trump-era restrictions on reproductive health. If confirmed, he’ll navigate an even more difficult legal and political landscape.

A seemingly easy and cheap treatment for a deadly disease has failed in a major study. Vitamin C is apparently not useful for sepsis after all. That’s a lesson for similar COIVD-19 treatments.

In his new book, The Ten Year War, Jonathan Cohn looks at the intense debate surrounding the Affordable Care Act, the compromises of the law itself, and the ongoing fight for universal health care.