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HHS Awards $45 Million in Grants to Expand Access to Care for People with Long COVID
Today [September 20], the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), announced nine grant awards of $1 million each for up to five years to support existing multidisciplinary long COVID clinics across the country to expand access to comprehensive, coordinated, and person-centered care for people with long COVID, particularly underserved, rural, vulnerable, and minority populations that are disproportionately impacted by the effects of long COVID.
Biden Administration to Ban Medical Debt From Americans’ Credit Scores
The Biden administration announced a major initiative to protect Americans from medical debt on Thursday, outlining plans to develop federal rules barring unpaid medical bills from affecting patients’ credit scores. The regulations, if enacted, would potentially help tens of millions of people who have medical debt on their credit...
Federal Government Will Again Offer Free COVID Tests
Biden-Harris Administration Awards $600 Million to Bolster US Manufacturing of COVID-19 Tests and Announces the Re-Opening of COVIDTests.gov. [On September 20], the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), is announcing an investment of $600 million across 12 domestic COVID-19 test manufacturers and the reopening of COVIDTests.gov to deliver COVID-19 tests for free to households across the country.
Cold Virus May Set the Stage for Long COVID
Many infections with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, resolve within days or weeks. But a significant number of people have symptoms that linger for weeks, months, or even years. This is called postacute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC)—commonly known as “long COVID.”. While several risk factors for PASC...
Health Workers Warn Loosening Mask Advice in Hospitals Would Harm Patients and Providers
Nurses, researchers, and workplace safety officers worry new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] might reduce protection against the coronavirus and other airborne pathogens in hospitals. A CDC advisory committee has been updating its 2007 standards for infection control in hospitals this year. Many health care...
Protein May Be Linked to Exercise Intolerance in ME/CFS
Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) afflicts more than 2 million people nationwide. People with ME/CFS live with debilitating symptoms including exhaustion, exercise intolerance, cognitive problems, and a worsening of symptoms after even mild exertion (known as post-exertional malaise). The causes of ME/CFS remain poorly understood, although many people first develop...
A New COVID Booster Is Here. Will Those at Greatest Risk Get It?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends new COVID-19 booster vaccines for all — but many who need them most won’t get them. About 75% of people in the United States appear to have skipped last year’s bivalent booster, and nothing suggests uptake will be better this time around.
Why the CDC Has Recommended New COVID Boosters for All
Everyone over the age of 6 months should get the latest COVID-19 booster, a federal expert panel recommended Tuesday [September 12] after hearing an estimate that universal vaccination could prevent 100,000 more hospitalizations each year than if only the elderly were vaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory...
HHS Launches Bridge Access Program to Safeguard Free COVID-19 Vaccination for Uninsured and Underinsured Adults
In April, [the Department of Health and Human Services] announced the “HHS Bridge Access Program for COVID-19 Vaccines and Treatments Program” to maintain broad access to COVID-19 vaccines for millions of uninsured Americans. This week, the Bridge Access Program officially launches, providing continued free coverage for the estimated 25 to 30 million adults who would have otherwise lost access to affordable COVID-19 vaccines now that the distribution of vaccines has transitioned to the commercial market. Doses will be available in some locations this week, with distribution increasing in the coming weeks.
The Shrinking Number of Primary Care Physicians Is Reaching a Tipping Point
I’ve been receiving an escalating stream of panicked emails from people telling me their longtime physician was retiring, was no longer taking their insurance, or had gone concierge and would no longer see them unless they ponied up a hefty annual fee. They have said they couldn’t find another primary care doctor who could take them on or who offered a new-patient appointment sooner than months away.
Biden Administration Proposes New Standards to Boost Nursing Home Staffing
The nation’s most thinly staffed nursing homes would be required to hire more workers under new rules proposed on Friday by the Biden administration, the greatest change to federal nursing home regulations in three decades. The proposed standard was prompted by the industry’s troubled performance earlier in the coronavirus...
CDC Recommends Updated COVID-19 Vaccine for Fall/Winter Virus Season
CDC recommends everyone 6 months and older get an updated COVID-19 vaccine to protect against the potentially serious outcomes of COVID-19 illness this fall and winter. Updated COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna will be available later this week. Vaccination remains the best protection against COVID-19-related hospitalization and death. Vaccination...
Pfizer and Moderna Are Pushing the New COVID Booster. Should You Get It? The CDC Is About to Decide.
A small percentage of Americans got the most recent COVID-19 booster shot, and even fewer probably realize the federal government is preparing to recommend yet another shot as early as Tuesday. Until a week or two ago, William Schaffner read that indifference as a sign the Centers for Disease Control...
FDA Authorizes Updated COVID Vaccine Boosters
FDA Takes Action on Updated mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines to Better Protect Against Currently Circulating Variants. Today [September 11], the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took action approving and authorizing for emergency use updated COVID-19 vaccines formulated to more closely target currently circulating variants and to provide better protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death.
New Program Will Develop mRNA Tools for Cancer and Other Diseases
The Biden Cancer Moonshot has announced a new program to develop generalizable mRNA tools that can be harnessed to train the immune system to more effectively fight cancer and other diseases, the administration recently announced. Biden’s CUREIT (Curing the Uncurable via RNA-Encoded Immunogene Tuning) initiative will be led by a...
Tenofovir and COVID: The Jury Is Still Out
Recent studies continue to yield conflicting evidence about whether tenofovir reduces the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection or severe COVID-19. What’s more, some patients have anecdotally reported that tenofovir improved their long COVID symptoms, but here, too, reports are mixed. The latest study, from researchers in the Netherlands, found that...
Timing and Cost of New Vaccines Vary by Virus and Health Insurance Status
As summer edges toward fall, thoughts turn to, well, vaccines. Yes, inevitably, it’s time to think about the usual suspects — influenza and COVID-19 shots — but also the new kid in town: recently approved vaccines for RSV, short for respiratory syncytial virus. But who should get...
Republican Debate Highlights Candidates’ Views on Abortion
Eight Republican hopefuls took the stage [August 23] at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee for the first debate of the 2024 presidential primary campaign. The eight-way faceoff, generally chaotic and contentious, included Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy; former Vice President Mike Pence; U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.); former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; Trump administration ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley; North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum; and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Fox News anchors Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier often struggled to keep the evening on track. Former President Donald Trump chose not to attend, leading Baier to refer to him as “the elephant not in the room.”
Scientists Evaluate Role of Deer in SARS-CoV-2 Transmission
SARS-CoV-2 [the virus that caused COVID] evolves three times faster in white-tailed deer than in people, making NIAID-funded scientists at The Ohio State University and colleagues ask whether deer are an important reservoir for emerging virus variants—similar to how influenza virus evolves and spreads from pigs. The Ohio State...
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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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