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COVID Health
Medicare Enrollees Can Switch Coverage Now. Here’s What’s New and What to Consider.
Consumers know it’s fall when stores start offering Halloween candy and flu shots — and airwaves and mailboxes are filled with advertisements for Medicare options. It’s annual open enrollment time again for the 65 million Americans covered by Medicare, the federal health program for older people and some people with disabilities.
Study Reveals How Young Children’s Immune Systems Tame SARS-CoV-2
New research helps explain why young children have lower rates of severe COVID-19 than adults. A study of infants and young children found those who acquired SARS-CoV-2 had a strong, sustained antibody response to the virus and high levels of inflammatory proteins in the nose but not in the blood. This immune response contrasts with that typically seen in adults with SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The New Vaccines and You: Americans Better Armed Than Ever Against the Winter Blechs
Last year’s “triple-demic” marked the beginning of what may be a new normal: a confluence of respiratory infections — RSV, influenza, and COVID-19 — will surge as the weather cools each year. Like blizzards, the specific timing and severity of these outbreaks are hard to...
FDA-Approved RSV Maternal Vaccine Protects Infants, Reduces Economic Burden
Maternal vaccination against respiratory syncytial virus could reduce the clinical burden of the disease for infants from birth up to one year of age, according to a new study. Researchers estimate vaccination for all who are eligible could save nearly $800 million in direct medical and indirect costs. The vaccine...
COVID-19 Intranasal Vaccine Candidate Produces Robust Immune Response
A live-attenuated COVID-19 vaccine candidate that uses a nonpathogenic form of the virus and is administered by nose produces a significant immune response to multiple strains and variants, according to new phase 1 clinical trial data. The study findings highlight the potential of next-generation COVID-19 vaccines in protecting against possible...
Immune and Hormonal Features of Long COVID
Some people may experience chronic symptoms for months or years after an acute viral infection. Long COVID, a syndrome that develops in some people after an acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, is a prominent recent example. More than 200 long COVID symptoms have been documented. Typical ones include extreme fatigue, cognitive impairment, post-exertional malaise, and respiratory problems. Research suggests that about one in eight people who survive an acute SARS-CoV-2 infection go on to have persistent symptoms. The processes that give rise to long COVID remain unclear.
FDA Authorizes New Novavax COVID Vaccine
On October 3, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized an updated version of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine, following its mid-September approval of updated messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech. The three new vaccines are designed to provide better protection against recent SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus variants. “The COVID-19 vaccines...
Health Insurers Must Count Co-Pays as Patient Costs, Court Rules
A district judge struck down a federal rule implemented under the Trump administration that allowed health insurers to ignore co-pay assistance when tabulating a patient’s out-of-pocket costs. The ruling is a win for people who need expensive prescription drugs, notably those with HIV, hepatitis, cancer, arthritis, diabetes and multiple...
Is coffee good or bad for you?
Coffee often gets a bad rap, perhaps due to the notion that anything so enjoyable must be bad for you. But in fact, studies show that coffee has numerous health benefits. Coffee’s effect on the liver has the largest body of evidence. Studies have found that coffee may reduce the risk of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis, fatty liver disease, alcohol-related liver disease and liver cancer. An analysis comparing countries with and without heavy coffee consumption suggests that drinking two cups a day could reduce the number of liver-related deaths by more than 450,000 a year worldwide. Another study found that drinking three cups a day cut the risk of death in half for people with both HIV and hepatitis C.
New Medicare Advantage Plans Tailor Offerings to Asian Americans, Latinos, and LGBTQ+
As Medicare Advantage continues to gain popularity among seniors, three Southern California companies are pioneering new types of plans that target cultural and ethnic communities with special offerings and native-language practitioners. Clever Care Health Plan, based in Huntington Beach, and Alignment Health, based in nearby Orange, both have plans aimed...
NIH Designates People With Disabilities as a Population With Health Disparities
Today [September 26], Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, MD, director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), designated people with disabilities as a population with health disparities for research supported by the National Institutes of Health. The decision was made in consultation with Robert Otto Valdez, PhD,...
How Will Rural Americans Fare During Medicaid Unwinding? Experts Fear They’re on Their Own
Abby Madore covers a lot of ground each day at work. A staffer at a community health center in Carson City, Nevada, Madore spends her days helping low-income residents understand their health insurance options, including Medicaid. Her phone is always ringing, she said, as she fields calls from clients who dial in from the state’s remote reaches seeking help.
SARS-CoV-2 Infects Coronary Arteries, Increases Plaque Inflammation
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can directly infect the arteries of the heart and cause the fatty plaque inside arteries to become highly inflamed, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings, published in the journal Nature Cardiovascular Research, may help explain why certain people who get COVID-19 have a greater chance of developing cardiovascular disease, or if they already have it, develop more heart-related complications.
New Cancer Diagnoses Fell Abruptly Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic
New diagnoses of six major cancer types in the United States fell abruptly in early 2020, coinciding with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to findings from part 2 of the latest Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer. The volume of pathology reports also declined...
‘Dr. Google’ Meets Its Match: Dr. ChatGPT
As a fourth-year ophthalmology resident at Emory University School of Medicine, Riley Lyons’ biggest responsibilities include triage: When a patient comes in with an eye-related complaint, Lyons must make an immediate assessment of its urgency. He often finds patients have already turned to “Dr. Google.” Online, Lyons said, they...
Five Tips for Talking With a Health Care Provider About Your Mental Health
Don’t wait for a health care provider to ask about your mental health. Start the conversation. Here are five tips to help prepare and guide you on talking to a health care provider about your mental health and getting the most out of your visit. 1. Talk to a...
Adult Obesity Prevalence Remains High; Support for Prevention and Treatment Needed
New population data from 2022 show 22 states have an adult obesity prevalence at or above 35%, compared to 19 states in 2021, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Just ten years ago, no state had an adult obesity prevalence at or above 35%.
What Happens to Health Programs if the Federal Government Shuts Down?
For the first time since 2019, congressional gridlock is poised to at least temporarily shut down big parts of the federal government — including many health programs. If it happens, some government functions would stop completely and some in part, while others wouldn’t be immediately affected — including Medicare, Medicaid, and health plans sold under the Affordable Care Act. But a shutdown could complicate the lives of everyone who interacts with any federal health program, as well as the people who work at the agencies administering them.
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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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