Congress failed to approve billions in new funding to fight COVID-19. Among threatened program cuts are free treatments for COVID patients who are uninsured.
Category: NPR
The case of the $489,000 air ambulance ride
Diagnosed with aggressive leukemia on a Western trip, a young man thought his insurance would cover an air ambulance ride home to North Carolina. Instead, he got stuck with an astronomical bill.
Evidence grows that vaccines lower the risk of getting long COVID
Though findings are preliminary, many studies suggest that vaccinated people have good protection against the condition, although just how much is still up for debate.
In nurse’s trial, witness says hospital bears ‘heavy’ responsibility for patient death
Nashville nurse RaDonda Vaught is on trial for reckless homicide for giving the wrong medication to a patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Idaho prepares to ban most abortions in the state as governor signs Texas-style law
Barring legal challenges, Idaho’s law is scheduled to take effect in about a month. It bans most abortions after about six weeks and allows health care providers to be sued.
A doctor chronicles life in a Chicago ER during the first year of the pandemic
Though he fully expected to be infected with COVID, Dr. Thomas Fisher says he was committed to providing medical care to the Black community on Chicago’s South Side. His new book is The Emergency.
Nurses are frustrated by months-long delays to get licensed in some states
Nurses trying to practice in Pennsylvania have some of the longest waiting times in the nation. After wading endlessly through red tape, some have given up and left, worsening the staffing shortage.
U.K. COVID cases are rising. Health officials are watching to see if the U.S. is next
The rise of the more infectious BA.2 variant in the U.S. — plus signals in the sewage — also point to a possible uptick in cases, and have health officials on alert.
People with ‘medium COVID’ are caught in a gray area of recovery with little support
Even if you don’t have long COVID, it can still take weeks to recover — much longer than the isolation period implies. Millions of Americans are finding that this still majorly disrupts their lives.
A surge in COVID-19 spurs new lockdowns in China’s cities
In the latest wave, the highly transmissible omicron variant has moved more quickly than contact tracing allows.
