Category: Public Health

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Medicaid Machinations

The lame-duck Congress has returned to Washington with a long health care to-do list and only a little time. Meanwhile, some of the states that have not yet expanded Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act are rethinking those decisions. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these topics and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KHN’s Fred Clasen-Kelly, who reported and wrote the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature, about a mysterious mishap during minor surgery.

Drug overdoses triple among older adults, CDC finds

Rates of death from drug overdoses among seniors has more than tripled in the past two decades, the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics found.

‘An infodemic alongside a pandemic’: 5 health experts react to Twitter’s dropped misinformation ban

Many health experts are voicing an outcry after Twitter dropped its policy to label tweets that promote misinformation about COVID-19 on Nov. 23. 

Massachusetts clinics bring back incentives to increase COVID-19 booster rates

To incentivize people to get a COVID-19 vaccine or booster, clinics across Massachusetts are offering $75 dollar gift cards through the end of the year, or until supplies last, according to CBS Boston. 

Her Apartment Might Have Put Her Son’s Health at Risk. But ‘I Have Nowhere Else to Go.’

The United States is suffering from a severe shortage of affordable housing. But elected officials have done little to fix a problem that puts many Americans at greater risk for sickness and shortens lives.

CDC expands polio wastewater testing to more states

The CDC is expanding wastewater testing for polio in certain areas of the country to determine whether the virus is circulating outside of New York, where an unvaccinated person in Rockland County contracted a case of paralytic polio this summer. 

‘The floodgates opened’: Flu hits hospitals

In a one week period, new flu hospitalizations in the U.S. rose nearly 30 percent, and experts say cases are expected to continue rising in the coming weeks. 

COVID-19 admissions up in 32 states

COVID-19 hospitalizations have ticked up nationwide in recent weeks amid concerns of a potential winter surge, according to data tracked by The New York Times.

A New Use for Dating Apps: Chasing STIs

For contact tracers of sexually transmitted infections, telephones and text messages have become ineffective. Dating apps increasingly are their best bet for informing people of their exposure risks.

How COVID-19 has changed what we know about the flu

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, public health experts didn’t believe the flu could be contained. But, when flu transmission came to a halt during the pandemic, scientists were able to gain a new understanding of the virus.