The weekly rate of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for flu, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus peaked in early December, new CDC data shows.
Category: Public Health
What Older Americans Need to Know About Taking Paxlovid
Covid-19 continues to hit seniors with disproportionate severity. Experts say Paxlovid is an effective therapy that is being underprescribed for people 65 and older.
Numbers Don’t Lie. Biden Kept His Promise on Improving Obamacare.
KHN has teamed up with our partners at PolitiFact to monitor 100 key promises made by Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign — including those surrounding the Affordable Care Act.
Proportion of Americans delaying medical care over cost hits a high: Gallup
Thirty-eight percent of Americans said they put off medical treatment in 2022 because of the cost, according to a Gallup poll published Jan. 17. This marks a 12 percentage point increase from those who said the same a year earlier, and the highest sinc…
COVID-19 admissions dip as XBB.1.5 spreads
Although the highly transmissible omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 is gaining prevalence nationwide, COVID-19 cases are flat and hospitalizations have dipped. The data suggests the U.S. will see more of a COVID-19 “bump” this winter versus a full-fledged sur…
Rural Seniors Benefit From Pandemic-Driven Remote Fitness Boom
When the pandemic began, senior service agencies hustled to rework health classes to include virtual options for older adults. Now that isolation has ended, virtual classes remain. For seniors in rural areas, those classes have broadened access to supervised physical activity.
Why body type standards are misleading in assessing health [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! In this episode, we explore the concept of normal weight obesity and skinny fat with scientific researcher Marc Nelson. Marc discusses how genetics, diet, exercise, and lifestyle all play a…
Flu positivity drops: 6 FluView notes
Of more than 96,000 specimens tested for influenza at U.S. clinical laboratories for the week ending Jan. 7, 8.6 percent were positive, the CDC’s latest FluView report shows. This figure hovered around 25 percent for several consecutive weeks in Decemb…
XBB.1.5 rises to 43% of cases: 4 COVID-19 updates
In about a week, the prevalence of omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 grew more than 50 percent, according to the latest CDC variant proportion estimates.
Ending Involuntary Commitments Would Shift Burden of Dementia Care to Strapped Communities
Health department officials anticipate having to transfer two dozen patients from the Montana State Hospital to another state-run facility if a bill to end involuntary commitments passes.
