Category: NPR

The coronavirus is ripping across one of the nation’s poorest and unhealthiest states — Alabama. The state ranks third in the U.S. for the number of people per capita hospitalized with COVID-19.

The U.S. has only four percent of the world’s population — and yet it accounts for 20 percent of all COVID deaths. New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright discusses America’s pandemic year.

NPR’s Ailsa Chang talks with Erin Brodwin of Stat News about why Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP MorganChase health care company Haven is closing.

Under a rule that kicked in Jan. 1, hospitals must now make public the prices they negotiate with health insurers. But health policy experts have divergent views on what that will mean for patients.

Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases that have inundated ICUs, the Southern California county is also asking ambulance crews to conserve bottled oxygen.

A new federal health care rule requires hospitals to publicly post prices for every service they offer and break down those prices by component and procedure.

NPR’s Ailsa Chang talks with Dr. Nikhila Juvvadi, chief clinical officer at The Loretto Hospital in Chicago, about why some health care workers in her hospital don’t want to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

A third of Black Americans are hesitant to get a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll. Some Black doctors are finding creative ways to encourage vaccine acceptance.

Dr. Nikhila Juvvadi, chief clinical officer at a Chicago hospital, says about 40 percent of the staff distrust the vaccines — in part because of deep-rooted cultural mistrust based on past abuses.

A quick pivot to outdoor dining helped many restaurants survive pandemic restrictions. Now some have added temporary shelters to accommodate winter weather. The safest don’t have walls, experts say.