Last summer, Global Plasma Solutions wanted to test whether the company’s air-purifying devices could kill covid-19 virus particles but could find only a lab using a chamber the size of a shoebox for its trials. In the company-funded study, the virus was blasted with 27,000 ions per cubic centimeter.

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In September, the company’s founder incidentally mentioned that the devices being offered for sale actually deliver a lot less ion power — 13 times less — into a full-sized room.

The company nonetheless used the shoebox results — over 99% viral reduction — in marketing its device heavily to schools as something that could combat covid in classrooms far, far larger than a shoebox.

School officials desperate to calm worried parents bought these devices and others with a flood of federal funds, installing them in more than 2,000 schools … Read the rest

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It was April, more than three months into the vaccination campaign against covid-19, and Jim Freeman, 83, still had not gotten his first dose.

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Freeman had been eligible for months as part of the 75-and-older target group deemed most vulnerable to death and serious illness in the pandemic. But he could not leave his home to make the journey to one of the mass-vaccination sites in San Mateo County. Freeman, who has Parkinson’s disease, has extremely limited mobility and no longer can walk.

“He watches TV at night and sees all these people in line getting vaccines, but he couldn’t do it,” said his daughter Beth Freeman, 58. “It was really frustrating.” She contacted the county and state public health departments and even her local congresswoman for help, but none had a solution.

Finally, after weeks of failed attempts to get … Read the rest

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In their last year of medical school, fourth-year students get matched to a hospital where they will serve their residency.

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The annual rite of passage is called the National Resident Matching Program. To the students, it’s simply the Match.

Except not every medical student is successful. While tens of thousands do land a residency slot every year, thousands others don’t.

Those “unmatched” students are usually left scrambling to figure out their next steps, since newly graduated doctors who don’t complete a residency program cannot receive their license to practice medicine.

At first glance, two new advocacy groups, Doctors Without Jobs and Unmatched and Unemployed Doctors of America, seem to be championing their cause, helping them find residency slots and lobbying Congress to create more medical residency positions. The groups also recently organized a protest in Washington, … Read the rest

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Therapists and other behavioral health care providers cut hours, reduced staffs and turned away patients during the pandemic as more Americans experienced depression symptoms and drug overdoses, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

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The report on patient access to behavioral health care during the covid-19 crisis also casts doubt on whether insurers are abiding by federal law requiring parity in insurance coverage, which forbids health plans from passing along more of the bill for mental health care to patients than they would for medical or surgical care.

The GAO’s findings are “the tip of the iceberg” in how Americans with mental, emotional and substance use disorders are treated differently than those with physical conditions, said JoAnn Volk, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms who studies mental health coverage.

The GAO report, shared … Read the rest

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It’s been a busy 100 days for the Biden administration on health policy. The promise Joe Biden made as president-elect to get 100 million covid vaccinations in arms was doubled, healthcare.gov reopened to those without insurance, and steps were taken to undo a raft of health policies implemented by President Donald Trump. The covid relief bill passed by Congress in March also boosted subsidies for those who buy their own coverage and provided incentives for the 12 states that have yet to expand their Medicaid programs under the ACA.

But those actions may prove the high point for health policy this year. Administration officials initially promised that health would be a major part of the president’s $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, but major changes, particularly those addressing prescription drug costs, were nowhere to be seen when the plan was … Read the rest

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Si una persona cree que vacunarse hoy en día es una dura prueba, debería conocer la versión del siglo XVIII.

Después de que te pusieran en el brazo pus de un hervor de viruela, seguirían tres semanas de fiebre, sudores, escalofríos, sangrado y purgas con medicinas peligrosas, acompañadas de himnos, oraciones y sermones sobre el fuego del infierno recitados por rígidos predicadores.

En general, con la vacuna de la viruela, el proceso funcionó y las personas lo prefirieron a soportar la viruela “natural”, que mató a cerca de un tercio de quienes la contrajeron. Los pacientes a menudo estaban agradecidos por la prueba de inmunización, una vez que terminaba, claro.

“Por lo tanto, mediante la Misericordia de Dios, he sido preservado a través del Moquillo de la Viruela”, escribió un tal Peter Thatcher en 1764, después de someterse al proceso en un hospital de vacunación de Boston. “Muchos y atroces … Read the rest

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In the first 100 days, new presidents try to turn campaign promises into quick legislative victories, defuse lingering crises, set themselves apart from their predecessor and set a leadership tone for the next four years — all while avoiding blunders that could destroy their momentum.

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So how is President Joe Biden doing as he approaches this mark?

Not bad, experts say, given the scale of the crisis he’s tackling and the political opposition he faces in Congress.

“I think there are three accomplishments that stand out so far: the ramped-up coronavirus vaccine distribution, the passage of the American Rescue Plan and the return to the Paris Climate Agreement,” said John Frendreis, a political scientist at Loyola University in Chicago.

When Biden took office, the seven-day rolling average for vaccinations was 777,000 a day, but that number rose … Read the rest

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Just as other industries are rolling back some consumer-friendly changes made early in the pandemic — think empty middle seats on airplanes — so, too, are health insurers.

Many voluntarily waived  all deductibles, copayments and other costs for insured patients who fell ill with covid-19 and needed hospital care, doctor visits, medications or other treatment.

Setting aside those fees was a good move from a public relations standpoint. The industry got credit for helping customers during tough times. And it had political and financial benefits for insurers, too.

But nothing lasts forever.

Starting at the end of last year — and continuing into the spring — a growing number of insurers are quietly ending those fee waivers for covid treatment on some or all policies.

“When it comes to treatment, more and more consumers will find that the normal course of deductibles, copayments and coinsurance will apply,” said Sabrina … Read the rest

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When Kathryn Watkins goes shopping these days, she doesn’t bring her three young children. There are just too many people not wearing masks in her southern Michigan town of Hillsdale.

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At some stores, “not even the employees are wearing them anymore,” said Watkins, who estimates about 30% of shoppers wear masks, down from around 70% earlier in the pandemic. “There’s a complete disregard for the very real fact that they could wind up infecting someone.”

Her state tops the nation by far in the rate of new covid cases, a sharp upward trajectory that has more than two dozen hospitals in the state nearing 90% capacity.

The nation is watching.

Michigan’s outbreak could be an anomaly or a preview of what will happen in the nation as it emerges from the pandemic. Will pockets of covid denialism and vaccine resistance like … Read the rest

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When Tom Becker was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat in March 2020, the 60-year-old EMS helicopter pilot from Washington, Missouri, worried he would never fly again.

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But his cardiologist, Dr. Christopher Allen, had served in the Air Force and knew aviation physiology. So Becker felt reassured when Allen told him he didn’t expect any problems, because Becker was still fairly young.

Allen told Becker — who lives about 50 minutes away from his office at Mercy Hospital South, near St. Louis — that Becker could call his cellphone with any concerns and meet with him virtually. Becker estimates they had more than 10 video appointments over six months.

“The video visits worked just the same as being in the office,” said Becker.

That’s a common assessment from patients and providers at Mercy, the St. … Read the rest

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