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COVID Health
Bird Flu Tests Are Hard To Get. So How Will We Know When To Sound the Pandemic Alarm?
Stanford University infectious disease doctor Abraar Karan has seen a lot of patients with runny noses, fevers, and irritated eyes lately. Such symptoms could signal allergies, COVID, or a cold. This year, there’s another suspect, bird flu — but there’s no way for most doctors to know.
Biden Administration Advances Plan To Remove Medical Debt From Credit Scores
Americans would no longer have to worry about medical debts dragging down their credit scores under federal regulations proposed Tuesday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If enacted, the rules would dramatically expand protections for tens of millions of Americans burdened by medical bills they can’t afford. The regulations...
Safety-Net Health Clinics Cut Services and Staff Amid Medicaid ‘Unwinding’
One of Montana’s largest health clinics that serves people in poverty has cut back services and laid off workers. The retrenchment mirrors similar cuts around the country as safety-net health centers feel the effects of states purging their Medicaid rolls. Billings-based RiverStone Health is eliminating 42 jobs this spring,...
“They Bungled It”: NIH Documents Reveal How $1.6 Billion Long Covid Initiative Has Failed so Far to Meet its Goals
The NIH made key structural errors in setting up RECOVER, namely concentrating funding with a small number of researchers and, in selecting those researchers, failing to prioritize people who had experience in studying or treating post-infectious chronic diseases before the pandemic. Structural issues with RECOVER fit into broader patterns with...
CDC Confirms Second Human H5 Bird Flu Case in Michigan
A second human case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5) virus infection has been identified in the state of Michigan. This is the third human case associated with an ongoing multistate outbreak of A(H5N1) in U.S. dairy cows. None of the three cases are associated with the others. As...
After Grilling an NIH Scientist Over COVID Emails, Congress Turns to Anthony Fauci
Former National Institutes of Health official Anthony Fauci has faced many hostile questions from members of Congress, but when he appears before a House panel on Monday, he’ll have something new to answer for: a trove of incendiary emails written by one of his closest advisers. In the emails,...
Medicaid Expansion Helped Early Cancer Detection During Second Year of COVID-19 Pandemic
A new study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS) shows continued cancer underdiagnosis and declines in proportion of early-stage diagnoses nationwide in 2021, the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the pattern was worse in non-expansion states, suggesting a protective effect of Medicaid expansion on cancer early diagnosis during the public health emergency.
High H5N1 Influenza Levels Found in Mice Given Raw Milk From Infected Dairy Cows
Mice administered raw milk samples from dairy cows infected with H5N1 influenza experienced high virus levels in their respiratory organs and lower virus levels in other vital organs, according to findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The results suggest that consumption of raw milk by animals poses a risk for H5N1 infection and raises questions about its potential risk in humans.
COVID-19 Eliminated a Decade of Progress in Global Level of Life Expectancy
The latest edition of the World Health Statistics released today by the World Health Organization (WHO) reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic reversed the trend of steady gain in life expectancy at birth and healthy life expectancy at birth (HALE). The pandemic wiped out nearly a decade of progress in improving...
Clues From Bird Flu’s Ground Zero on Dairy Farms in the Texas Panhandle
In early February, dairy farmers in the Texas Panhandle began to notice sick cattle. The buzz soon reached Darren Turley, executive director of the Texas Association of Dairymen: “They said there is something moving from herd to herd.”. Nearly 60 days passed before veterinarians identified the culprit: a highly...
Should People With Long COVID be Donating Blood?
In the fall of 2009, researchers at a lab in Reno, Nevada, said they detected a potentially transmissible virus in the blood of people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). The study led the American Red Cross to ban blood donations from people with ME. The study was retracted in 2011 and the Red Cross guideline was later reversed, but more than a decade later, there is still a lifetime ban on blood donation from people with ME in the U.K. by the National Health Service (NHS).
CDC Reports Second Human Case of H5 Bird Flu Tied to Dairy Cow Outbreak
A human case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5) (“H5 bird flu”) virus infection in the United States has been identified in the state of Michigan. This is the second case associated with an ongoing multistate outbreak of A(H5N1) in dairy cows.[1]. As with the case in...
End of Internet Subsidies for Low-Income Households Threatens Telehealth Access
For Cindy Westman, $30 buys a week’s worth of gas to drive to medical appointments and run errands. It’s also how much she spent on her monthly internet bill before the federal Affordable Connectivity Program stepped in and covered her payments. “When you have low income and you...
WHO Overturns Dogma on Airborne Disease Spread. The CDC Might Not Act on It.
The World Health Organization has issued a report that transforms how the world understands respiratory infections like COVID-19, influenza, and measles. Motivated by grave missteps in the pandemic, the WHO convened about 50 experts in virology, epidemiology, aerosol science, and bioengineering, among other specialties, who spent two years poring through the evidence on how airborne viruses and bacteria spread.
Medicaid Unwinding Decried as Biased Against Disabled People
Jacqueline Saa has a genetic condition that leaves her unable to stand and walk on her own or hold a job. Every weekday for four years, Saa, 43, has relied on a home health aide to help her cook, bathe and dress, go to the doctor, pick up medications, and accomplish other daily tasks.
Rejuvenating the Immune System by Depleting Certain Stem Cells
The risk for serious infections rises with age, as people’s immune systems lose the ability to respond to novel infections. Part of the reason for this is that the types of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), which make the various types of blood cells, change with age. Some HSCs, called...
NIH to Open Long COVID Clinical Trials to Study Sleep Disturbances, Exercise Intolerance and Post-Exertional Malaise
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will launch clinical trials to investigate potential treatments for long-term symptoms after COVID-19 infection, including sleep disturbances, exercise intolerance and the worsening of symptoms following physical or mental exertion known as post-exertional malaise (PEM). The mid-stage trials, part of NIH’s Researching COVID to Enhance...
More Patients Are Losing Their Doctors — And Trust in the Primary Care System
First, her favorite doctor in Providence, Rhode Island, retired. Then her other doctor at a health center a few miles away left the practice. Now, Piedad Fred has developed a new chronic condition: distrust in the American medical system. “I don’t know,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “To...
Bird Flu Is Bad for Poultry and Dairy Cows. It’s Not a Dire Threat for Most of Us — Yet.
Headlines are flying after the Department of Agriculture confirmed that the H5N1 bird flu virus has infected dairy cows around the country. Tests have detected the virus among cattle in nine states, mainly in Texas and New Mexico, and most recently in Colorado, said Nirav Shah, principal deputy director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a May 1 event held by the Council on Foreign Relations.
Making an Impact: Results From NIAID-Funded Study of Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients
Why do some people hospitalized with COVID-19 succumb, while others—with apparently similar disease severity at the time of hospitalization—survive? Among older individuals, are there particular immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 virus infection that set the stage for the increased risk of severe COVID-19? These are among the questions addressed...
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COVID Health is here to help people navigate the unknowns of a COVID-19 diagnosis and what lies beyond. The site is also designed to help people learn how to prevent transmission of the new coronavirus, which is called SARS-CoV-2.
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