Category: states

Colleges’ Opening Fueled 3,000 COVID Cases a Day, Researchers Say

In a draft study, researchers correlated cellphone data showing students’ back-to-campus movements and county infection rates to quantify how the coronavirus spread as colleges and universities reopened for the fall semester.

Native Americans Feel Double Pain of COVID and Fires ‘Gobbling Up the Ground’

Tribal leaders have worked to keep the coronavirus off their reservations because of its deadly impact on Native populations. But careful avoidance of the COVID virus has handcuffed the tribes as they face a devastating fire season.

Rural Hospitals Teeter on Financial Cliff as COVID Medicare Loans Come Due

A lack of direction from federal administrators is causing confusion for many hospital administrators. Rural hospitals are among the ones hit hardest.

It’s Not Just Insulin: Lawmakers Focus on Price of One Drug, While Others Rise Too

While insulin is the poster child for outrageous prescription costs, patients are paying ever more to treat depression, asthma, HIV, cholesterol and more. And the pandemic has overtaken efforts to force the issue in Congress.

Wildfires’ Toxic Air Leaves Damage Long After the Smoke Clears

As fires burn longer and closer to cities throughout the West, researchers are trying to understand the lasting health impacts by studying a Montana town previously smothered by wildfire smoke.

Election Gift for Florida? Trump Poised to Approve Drug Imports From Canada

The Trump administration is primed to approve a plan designed to help lower costs of some prescription drugs by allowing states to import them from Canada. The announcement could come before Election Day, and Florida appears to be in line to go first.

In Face of COVID Threat, More Dialysis Patients Bring Treatment Home

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, more patients are administering dialysis to themselves at home rather than receiving it in a clinic. Although home dialysis limits exposure to the virus, it comes with its own challenges.

Urban Hospitals of Last Resort Cling to Life in Time of COVID

Rural hospitals have been closing at a quickening pace in recent years, but a number of inner-city hospitals now face a similar fate. Experts fear that the economic damage inflicted by the COVID pandemic is helping push some of these urban hospitals over the edge at the very time their services are most needed.

Lack of Antigen Test Reporting Leaves Country ‘Blind to the Pandemic’

A KHN review found more than 20 states either don’t count or have incomplete data on the use of COVID-19 antigen tests, leaving the public in the dark about the true scope of the pandemic.

COVID Vaccine Trials Move at Warp Speed, But Recruiting Black Volunteers Takes Time

The National Institutes of Health has suggested minorities should be overrepresented in COVID-19 vaccine trials — perhaps at rates that are double their percentage of the U.S. population. But efforts to recruit patients from racial minority groups are just beginning, while some trials have already advanced to phase 3.