Confronting Our ‘Frailties’: California’s Assembly Leader Reflects on a Year of Covid
California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon says covid exposed long-standing health care inequities that must be addressed. He told KHN he wants to get more people insured, boost broadband access so more patients can use telehealth and increase funding to local health departments.
Pandemic Leads Doctors to Rethink Unnecessary Treatment
Covid-caused delays in medical treatments and surgeries are producing data for health care providers to take another look at what’s needed and what isn’t.
No-Cancel Culture: How Telehealth Is Making It Easier to Keep That Therapy Session
No-shows for behavioral health appointments have been a long-standing problem, with up to 60% skipped. Now telehealth, fueled by the pandemic, makes it easier for people dealing with depression and other mental health issues to make it to their appointments at a time when such care is in high demand. But teletherapy creates other challenges.
Corporations Encourage Employee Vaccination but Stop Short of Mandates
Public health officials fear that requiring jabs on the job would create a noisy, counterproductive backlash.
KHN Journalists Comment on Abortion Case, Wasted Covid Doses
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Roe v. Wade on the Ropes
The newly conservative Supreme Court will hear a case that could overturn the nationwide right to abortion and cause political upheaval. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s abrupt announcement that vaccinated people can take off their masks in most places has caused upheaval of its own. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet and Mary Ellen McIntire of CQ Roll Call join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.
Stark Racial Disparities Persist in Vaccinations, State-Level CDC Data Shows
Black Americans’ vaccination rates still trail all other groups, while Hispanics show improvement. Native Americans show the strongest rates nationally.
Racism Derails Black Men’s Health, Even as Education Levels Rise
Researchers who study health among various racial and ethnic groups, as well as the social factors that influence health outcomes, say the findings suggest that the power of discrimination to harm Black men’s health may be more resistant than previously understood.
Leading virologists, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, are demanding a deeper probe into China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology as they try to identify the source of the deadly coronavirus.
‘Better Than the Hospital’: Pandemic Boosts Care for Serious Illnesses at Home
Covid-19 and dozens of other illnesses now qualify for home treatment under a new federal effort aimed at freeing up hospital beds during public health emergencies.