Category: states

High Obesity Rates in Southern States Magnify Covid Threat

In the American South — home to nine of the nation’s 12 heaviest states — obesity is playing a role not only in covid outcomes, but in the calculus of the vaccination rollout.

Pfizer’s Newest Vaccine Plant Has Persistent Mold Issues, History of Recalls

After nearly a decade’s worth of federal inspections, reprimands and corrective action plans, has Pfizer fixed the facility that will be filling vials of its covid vaccine?

What Childhood Vaccine Rates Can, and Can’t, Teach Us About Covid Vaccines

Hesitancy toward routine childhood vaccines doesn’t necessarily predict hesitancy toward a covid shot.

Texas Winter Storm Exposes Gaps in Senior Living Oversight

As the recent winter storm disaster in Texas showed, many long-term care sites aren’t required to have backup power supplies or other redundancies to keep residents safe when disaster strikes.

In Alabama, South Carolina and Louisiana, CVS Vaccine Appointments Go Unfilled

Dozens of open appointment slots in the three Southern states last week stood in sharp contrast to states such as Delaware, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, where spots generally were claimed by midmorning or earlier.

Without a Pandemic Safety Net, Immigrants Living in US Illegally Fall Through the Cracks

Many undocumented immigrants are essential workers at high risk of exposure to the virus — and the pandemic’s economic crash — with no direct access to federal financial lifelines available to U.S. citizens.

Behind The Byline: Reporting Road Trip

Check out KHN’s video series — Behind The Byline: How the Story Got Made. Come along as journalists and producers offer an insider’s view of health care coverage that does not quit.

California’s Vaccine Appointment Website Has Glitches. No Surprise?

Experts give poor usability ratings to My Turn, the new statewide sign-up app for covid vaccination. But with so many problems plaguing the vaccination effort, it seems unreasonable to have expected this one to work perfectly.

Firefighters — ‘Health Care Providers on a Truck’ — Signal Pandemic Burnout

Grappling with stagnant pay and a lack of personal protective equipment, firefighters are even more frustrated to find they are lower down the vaccine priority list than health care workers despite serving on the front lines of the medical system.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Good and Not-So-Good News on Covid

The FDA authorized the emergency use of a one-shot vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson, which could help accelerate the pace of vaccinations to prevent covid-19. But after a dramatic decline, case numbers are again rising, and several states are rolling back public health mitigation efforts. Mary Ellen McIntire of CQ Roll Call, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KHN’s Jordan Rau about the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” episode.