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Asian American health workers fight virus and racist attacks

May 11, 2021

NEW YORK (AP) — Medical student Natty Jumreornvong has a vaccine and protective gear to shield her from the coronavirus. But she couldn’t avoid exposure to the anti-Asian bigotry that pulsed to the surface after the pathogen was first identified in China. Psychiatry patients have called her by a racist slur for the disease, she said. A bystander spat at the Thai-born student to “go back to China” as she...

It’s not a ‘labor shortage.’ It’s a great reassessment of work in America.

May 10, 2021

Hiring was much weaker than expected in April. Wall Street thinks it’s a blip, but there could be much deeper rethinking of what jobs are needed and what workers want to do on a daily basis. From Wall Street to the White House, expectations were high for a hiring surge in April with potentially a million Americans returning to work. Instead, the world learned Friday that just 266,000 jobs were added, a...

US shifts strategy as vaccinations slow

May 06, 2021

A version of this story appeared in the May 5 edition of CNN's Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction newsletter. Sign up here to receive the need-to-know headlines every weekday . (CNN) America's vaccination pace is slowing, putting President Joe Biden's pledge for normality from July 4 in jeopardy. To tackle the threat, Biden on Tuesday announced a strategic shift from mass vaccination drives to utilizing more...

Democrats must find narrow path to curb high medicine prices

May 03, 2021

President Joe Biden’s call for authorizing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices has energized Democrats on a politically popular idea they’ve been pushing for nearly 20 years only to encounter frustration WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden ’s call for authorizing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices has energized Democrats on a politically popular idea they've been...

Health Experts Urge U.S. Government On Social Media To Donate Unused AstraZeneca Vaccines To India

Apr 27, 2021

Update: On April 26th, the White House announced that it will share 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine with other nations around the world after quality control inspections by the FDA. This week, global health experts took to social media to ask the U.S. government why it hasn’t offered its stockpile of AstraZeneca vaccines to India. There are currently tens of millions of unused...

America reaches milestone with COVID-19 vaccine widely available to those who want it, but hesitancy still casts a shadow

Apr 22, 2021

USA TODAY's panel of experts celebrate the success of the U.S. COVID-19 vaccine program but worry that although most Americans can get a shot, too many won't. s of Monday, COVID-19 vaccines are available to every American over 16 who wants a shot, but a panel of experts convened by USA TODAY remains deeply concerned about the people who say vaccines aren't needed. Anxiety about getting a shot is normal,...

Policies To Improve Health Insurance Coverage as America Recovers From COVID-19

Mar 16, 2021

One year ago this month, the first wave of COVID-19 cases in the United States led to widespread job loss throughout the country. 1 Early in the pandemic, there was serious concern that the impact of these job losses would lead millions of workers to lose job-based health insurance coverage, causing a dramatic spike in uninsurance. Evidence to date suggests that the number of uninsured people has not risen as greatly as...

What the COVID-19 Relief Package Means for Health and Health Care

Mar 12, 2021

The $1.9 trillion measure cleared by Congress includes funding for testing and vaccine initiatives and aims to expand the reach of the Affordable Care Act. THE $1.9 TRILLION COVID-19 relief package cleared by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden will provide Americans with $1,400 stimulus payments but also includes a raft of health- and health care-related provisions. The package, dubbed...

'Hard truths and important facts': Biden pushes for coronavirus testing reset with $50 billion plan

Jan 26, 2021

President Joe Biden seeks to reset the nation’s inconsistent coronavirus testing efforts with a $50 billion plan and more federal oversight. Biden’s plan calls for a newly created Pandemic Testing Board to coordinate a “clear, unified approach” to testing for COVID-19, a marked difference from the Trump administration’s policy of states establishing their own plans with federal support. Laboratories have...

US Lawmakers Approve $900 Billion Coronavirus Aid Package

Jan 12, 2021

Problem Solvers Caucus co-chairs Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., at podium, and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., right, speak to the media with members of their caucus about the expected passage of the emergency COVID-19 relief bill, Monday, Dec. 21, 2020, on… The U.S. Congress has passed a massive year-end bill that includes a $900 billion coronavirus aid package and $1.4 trillion...

California paves the way for certification of mental health peer support providers

Jan 05, 2021

In September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that paves the way to expand the use of mental health peer providers by setting up a state certification process. That’s expected to cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars to run every year, but could also reduce costly inpatient hospitalizations. The idea behind mental health peer support is this: People who live with a mental illness help...

What COVID-19 has taught medicine in 2020

Dec 25, 2020

Just a year ago, medical science knew very little about the devastation COVID-19 can wreak. How it can destroy organs throughout the body , and even kill people who seemed to be on the way to recovery. Initially, doctors put desperately ill patients on ventilators and scrambled for drugs that offered any hint of promise (remember hydroxychloroquine?). They called and tweeted with colleagues around the world...

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