Public health agencies adapt covid lessons to curb overdoses, stds, and gun violence
by Katheryn Houghton LIVINGSTON, Mont. — Shannan Piccolo walked into a hotel with a tote bag full of Narcan and a speech about how easy it is to use the…
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Cognitive rehab may help older adults clear COVID-related brain fog
By Judith Graham/Kaiser Health News Eight months after falling ill with COVID-19, the 73-year-old woman couldn’t remember what her husband had told her a few hours before. She would forget…
Boost now or wait? Many wonder how best to ride out COVID’s next wave
By Sam Whitehead and Arthur Allen/Kaiser Health News Gwyneth Paige didn’t want to get vaccinated against covid-19 at first. With her health issues — hypertension, fibromyalgia, asthma — she wanted…
Hospital-acquired pneumonia is killing patients. Yet there is a simple way to stop it.
Four years ago, when Karen Giuliano went to a Boston hospital for hip replacement surgery, she was given a pale-pink bucket of toiletries issued to patients in many hospitals. Inside…
Vaccine and testing delays for monkeypox echo failures in early COVID-19 response
By Michelle Andrews/Kaiser Health News Andy Stone is one of the lucky ones. The New York City resident saw a tweet from a local AIDS activist saying that monkeypox vaccines would…
Gun safety ‘wrapped in a mental health bill’: A look at health provisions in the new law
By Victoria Knight/Kaiser Health News The gun safety law forged through tense bipartisan talks in the Senate last month has been heralded as the first federal legislation in 30 years…
5 things to know now that the US Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade ruling
By Victoria Knight, Rachana Pradhan, Julie Rovner The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization dramatically and rapidly alters the landscape of abortion access in the U.S. The…
Conservatives on US Supreme Court end nationwide right to abortion
By Julie Rovner/Kaiser Health News The Supreme Court on Friday, June 24 formally overturned its 49-year-old landmark Roe v. Wade decision, and with it ended a half-century of constitutionally guaranteed…
Seniors with prediabetes should eat better, get moving, but not fret too much about diabetes
By Judith Graham/ KHN ALMOST half of older adults — more than 26 million people 65 and older — have prediabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention….
Will the US overcome its complacency even as the COVID threat returns?
A FEW months ago, it seemed as though the country was poised to finally tame the pandemic, after two years of restrictions and tens of billions in government spending. The…
Children’s vision problems often go undetected, despite calls for regular screening
Jessica Oberoi, 13, can’t exactly remember when her eyesight started getting blurry. All she knows is that she had to squint to see the whiteboard at school. It wasn’t until…
Got long COVID? Medical expertise is vital, seniors should prepare to go slow
Older adults who have survived COVID-19 are more likely than younger patients to have persistent symptoms such as fatigue, breathlessness, muscle aches, heart palpitations, headaches, joint pain, and difficulty with…
CA lawmakers push to tighten licensing at nursing homes
By Samantha Young/Kaiser Health News SACRAMENTO — When Johanna Trenerry found a nursing home for her husband after his stroke, she expected his stay would be temporary. He never came home….
Why won’t more older Americans get their covid-19 booster?
Even as top U.S. health officials say it’s time America learns to live with the coronavirus, a chorus of leading researchers say faulty messaging on booster shots has left millions of older…
A guide to keeping up with omicron subvariants
TWO years into the coronavirus pandemic, Americans can be forgiven if they’ve lost track of the latest variants circulating nationally and around the world. We’ve heard of the alpha, beta,…
Attendance plummets at Los Angeles Covid vaccination events
By Heidi de Marco/Kaiser Health News LOS ANGELES — Nurse Angel Ho-king sways her head to the sound of salsa music as she waits for people willing to roll up…
Patients’ perilous months-long waiting for Medicaid coverage is a sign of what’s to come
By Bram Sable-Smith and Rachana Pradhan/Kaiser Health News Korra Elliott has tried to avoid seeing a doctor while waiting to get on Medicaid. She worries she can’t afford more bills without any insurance…
The CDC’s new guidelines on COVID risk and masking send confounding signals
WHEN the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month unveiled updated COVID-19 guidelines that relaxed masking recommendations, some people no doubt sighed in relief and thought it was about…
California governor’s big promises on drug prices are slow to materialize
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — When Gov. Gavin Newsom took office in 2019, he promised to lower prescription drug costs for all Californians. But now, as Newsom nears the end of his…
Biden pledges better nursing home care, but he likely won’t fast-track it
PRESIDENT Joe Biden’s top Medicare official suggested Wednesday, March 2 that forthcoming rules to bolster nursing home staffing won’t be issued under a mechanism, known as interim final rules, that…
J&J-vaxxed, mRNA-boosted, and pondering a third shot
YES, we are all exhausted by the covid pandemic. Flummoxed by the constantly shifting science and guidelines. Worried about a succession of scary new variants, each with its own name,…
Why millions on Medicaid are at risk of losing coverage in the months ahead
By Rachana Pradhan/Kaiser Health News The Biden administration and state officials are bracing for a great unwinding: millions of people losing their Medicaid benefits when the pandemic health emergency ends….
It’s day 6 of COVID and a rapid antigen test comes back positive – stay home, say virologists
By Rae Ellen Bichell WHAT does it mean if a person’s rapid antigen test result comes back positive after five days of isolation due to COVID-19? According to the experts,…
Why Medicare doesn’t pay for rapid at-home COVID-19 tests
By Michelle Andrews/Kaiser Health News WHAT group is especially vulnerable to the ravages of COVID-19 even if fully vaccinated and boosted? Seniors. And who will have an especially tough time…
5 things you should know about ‘free’ at-home COVID tests
By Damon Darlin/Kaiser Health News AMERICANS keep hearing that it is important to test frequently for COVID-19 at home. But just try to find an “at-home” rapid COVID test in…
Officials struggle to regulate pop-up COVID testing sites — and warn patients to beware
NEW YORK — In recent months, mobile covid-19 testing tents and vans have sprouted on urban sidewalks and street curbs as demand has skyrocketed in response to the rapid spread…
Hospitals recruit international nurses to fill pandemic shortages
By Nick Ehli/Kaiser Health News BILLINGS, Mont. — Before Mary Venus was offered a nursing job at a hospital here, she’d never heard of Billings or visited the United States….
California ballot will be heavy on health care
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — When Californians go to the polls later this year, they will confront contentious health care choices. Voters will weigh whether to overturn a state law that bans…
Nurses in crisis over COVID dig in for better work conditions
NURSES and health care workers across the country are finding strength in numbers and with labor actions not seen in years. In California, which has a strong union tradition, Kaiser…
How LA, calling the shots on school vaccine mandates, can lead the way on COVID rules
ON March 31, 1977, as a measles epidemic swept through Los Angeles, the county health department issued an ultimatum to the parents of the county’s 1.6 million schoolchildren: Get your…