Latest California Healthline Stories
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: 2020 in Review — It Wasn’t All COVID
The coronavirus pandemic colored just about everything in 2020. But there was other health policy news that you either never heard or might have forgotten about: the Affordable Care Act going before the Supreme Court with its survival on the line; ditto for Medicaid work requirements. And a surprise ending to the “surprise bill” saga. Joanne Kenen of Politico, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News and Sarah Karlin-Smith of Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.
At Risk of Extinction, Black-Footed Ferrets Get Experimental COVID Vaccine
Months before federal officials authorized experimental vaccines to ward off the coronavirus in humans, scientists tried a veterinary vaccine in endangered ferrets. Drugmakers are researching similar efforts for other animals proving vulnerable to the virus, such as farmed minks, in part to guard against virus mutations that could pose new risks to people.
Inside the First Chaotic Days of the Effort to Vaccinate America
After missteps in Washington, each state and county is left to juggle where to send vaccines first and how to get them to each nursing home, hospital local health department and even school.
Supply Is Limited and Distribution Uncertain as COVID Vaccine Rolls Out
Hospitals and nursing homes must decide who gets the initial doses as the U.S. heads into the biggest vaccination effort in history. There’s a lot left to figure out.
Farmworkers, Firefighters and Flight Attendants Jockey for Vaccine Priority
Everyone — from toilet paper manufacturers to patient advocates — is lobbying state advisory boards, arguing their members are essential, vulnerable or both — and, thus, most deserving of an early vaccine.
Agrícolas, bomberos y azafatas buscan estar entre los primeros en recibir la vacuna
Trabajadores de salud de primera línea, y residentes y personal de hogares de adultos mayores, recibirán las dosis de la vacuna contra COVID primero, pero… ¿quiénes le seguirán?
Demand for COVID Vaccines Expected to Get Heated — And Fast
With two vaccines against coronavirus disease poised for release within weeks, experts say they expect attitudes to shift dramatically from hesitancy to “Beanie Baby”-level urgency.
Feds Look to Pharmacists to Boost Childhood Immunization Rates
Fears over COVID-19 have contributed to a slump in inoculations among children. Now the federal government is looking to pharmacists for help, but many of them do not participate in a program that offers free shots to half the kids in the U.S.
How COVID-19 Highlights the Uncertainty of Medical Testing
Widespread COVID testing has revealed uncomfortable truths about medical tests: A test result is rarely a definitive answer, but instead a single clue. A result may be falsely positive or negative, or it may show an abnormality that doesn’t matter. And as COVID testing has made too clear, even an accurate, meaningful result is useless unless it’s acted on appropriately.
Cómo COVID-19 resalta la incertidumbre de las pruebas médicas
Según estimaciones, estas pruebas tienen una tasa de falsos negativos de hasta el 30%, es decir que 3 de cada 10 personas que realmente tienen la infección darán negativo.