Category: NPR

Testing kits and masks are already running short. Ventilators may soon be. NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks with Dr. Lee Daugherty Biddison about the ethical guidelines doctors use to allocate scarce supplies.

NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks to Dr. Sachita Shah, an emergency physician at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, about the challenges of the coronavirus response for hospitals and doctors.

“We were looking at a freight train coming across the country – we’re now looking at a bullet train,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. The state now has more than 25,000 cases.

People with disabilities are asking the federal government to stop state and hospital policies that they fear will ration care in favor of younger and healthier people.

The hospital ship, designed to treat war casualties, has left port in San Diego for Los Angeles. Its mission: treating patients who do not have COVID-19 to free up hospital beds.

Despite Trump’s public remarks, infectious disease experts say it’s premature to think hydroxychloroquine will help against COVID-19. But patients with lupus or rheumatoid arthritis rely on the drug.

There was already a shortage of medical personnel in rural America before the coronavirus. Medical staffing firms are now trying to send health workers to underserved small towns.

People with disabilities are asking the federal government to stop what they say are care-rationing plans from states and hospitals, which could possibly deny them treatment for COVID-19.

Ten years ago, President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law. Kaiser Health News reporter Julie Rovner speaks with NPR’s Ari Shapiro about its impact and how COVID-19 may affect it.

“You must increase your capacity by 50%,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo tells hospitals in his state. “You must. Mandatory directive from the state. Find more beds, use more rooms.”