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COVID Health
Where Are the Treatments for Long COVID?
Shaney Wright, a safety and risk management professional who has been suffering from long COVID for three years, doesn’t hide his frustration about the fact that there are no proven therapies for his condition. “Long COVID is a vile disease that affects every bodily system. It affects your ability...
SARS-CoV-2 Can Cause Lasting Damage to Cells’ Energy Production
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus responsible for the disease, SARS-CoV-2, was feared for its devastating damage to the lungs. But it quickly became apparent that the virus can infect organs and tissues throughout the body, including the heart, brain, kidneys, and blood vessels. Much of the...
5 Things to Know About the New Drug Pricing Negotiations
The Biden administration has picked the first 10 high-priced prescription drugs subject to federal price negotiations, taking a swipe at the powerful pharmaceutical industry. It marks a major turning point in a long-fought battle to control ever-rising drug prices for seniors and, eventually, other Americans. The first eligible drugs treat...
The Painful Pandemic Lessons Mandy Cohen Carries to the CDC
As COVID-19 devastated communities across the nation in spring 2020, a group of Black ministers in this racially divided city made an urgent plea for more testing in their neighborhoods. Testing at the time “was outside of communities of color,” said the Rev. Jordan Boyd, pastor of Rockwell AME Zion...
White House Announces First 10 Drugs Selected for Medicare Price Negotiation
On August 29, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) made a long-awaited announcement about the first 10 drugs selected for Medicare price negotiations. Medicare provides health coverage for people ages 65 and older. Seniors paid $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs for these drugs in 2022, according to a White House fact sheet. However, the negotiated prices will not go into effect until 2026.
The CDC Works to Overhaul Lab Operations After Covid Test Flop
In early February 2020, Kirsten St. George and her team at New York state’s public health lab received a test developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to diagnose people infected with the new, rapidly spreading coronavirus. But, like many labs around the country, it quickly found...
Few Firm Beliefs and Low Trust: Americans Not Sure What’s True in Age of Health Misinformation
Around 3 in 10 Americans still believe ivermectin is an effective treatment for COVID. What’s more, few place significant trust in any form of news media or official institution to accurately convey information about health topics, from COVID treatments and vaccines to reproductive health issues, a new poll from KFF shows.
Doctors Hesitate to Ask About Patients’ Immigration Status Despite New Florida Law
Fearful of risking their jobs, jeopardizing state funding for their institutions, and further politicizing health care, Florida hospital leaders have been reluctant to speak out against a new law that requires them to ask about patients’ immigration status. While Florida joins Kansas, Texas, Mississippi, and a handful of other...
Project NextGen Awards Over $1.4 Billion to Develop the Future of COVID-19 Vaccines and Therapeutics
Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), awarded more than $1.4 billion for Project NextGen to support the development of a new generation of tools and technologies to protect against COVID-19 for years to come. The awards announced...
FDA Approves First Vaccine for Pregnant Individuals to Prevent RSV in Infants
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Abrysvo (Respiratory Syncytial Virus Vaccine), the first vaccine approved for use in pregnant individuals to prevent lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD) and severe LRTD caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants from birth through 6 months of age. Abrysvo is approved...
A Peek at Big Pharma’s Playbook That Leaves Many Americans Unable to Afford Their Drugs
America’s pharmaceutical giants are suing this summer to block the federal government’s first effort at drug price regulation. Last year’s Inflation Reduction Act included what on its face seems a modest proposal: The federal government would for the first time be empowered to negotiate prices Medicare pays for drugs — but only for 10 very expensive medicines beginning in 2026 (an additional 15 in 2027 and 2028, with more added in later years). Another provision would require manufacturers to pay rebates to Medicare for drug prices that increased faster than inflation.
New Alzheimer’s Drug Raises Hopes — Along With Questions
The FDA has approved Leqembi, the first disease-modifying treatment for early-stage Alzheimer’s and a precursor condition, mild cognitive impairment. Medicare has said it will pay for the therapy. Medical centers across the country are scrambling to finalize policies and procedures for providing the medication to patients, possibly by summer’s end or early autumn.
Promising Better, Cheaper Care, Kaiser Permanente’s National Expansion Faces Wide Skepticism
As regulators review Kaiser Permanente’s proposed acquisition of a respected health system based in Pennsylvania, health care experts are still puzzling over how the surprise deal, announced in April, could fulfill the managed care giant’s promise of improving care and reducing costs for patients, including in its home state of California.
Severe COVID-19 May Lead to Long-Term Innate Immune System Changes
Severe COVID-19 may cause long-lasting alterations to the innate immune system, the first line of defense against pathogens, according to a small study funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. These changes may help explain why the disease can damage...
Proposed Rule Would Make Hospital Prices Even More Transparent
“How much is the ice cream?” A simple enough question, featured on a new TV and online advertisement, posed by a man who just wants something cold. A woman behind the counter responds with a smile: “Prices? No, we don’t have those anymore. We have estimates.”. The...
Relation of Parasitic Worm Infection and SARS-CoV-2 Explored
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, parts of the world with high rates of parasitic worm infection reported lower than expected illness and death from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Now, investigators from NIAID’s Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases have published research using mice that provides a possible immunological explanation for...
People With HIV Remain at Greater Risk for Death Due to COVID-19
Compared with the population at large, people with HIV did not see as much of a decrease in COVID-19 mortality after the advent of the omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant, according to study results presented at the International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science (#IAS2023). “While COVID-19 mortality risk declined dramatically during...
Dangers and Deaths Around Black Pregnancies Seen as a ‘Completely Preventable’ Health Crisis
Tonjanic Hill was overjoyed in 2017 when she learned she was 14 weeks pregnant. Despite a history of uterine fibroids, she never lost faith that she would someday have a child. But, just five weeks after confirming her pregnancy, and the day after a gender-reveal party where she announced she...
Lost Medicaid Health Coverage? Here’s What You Need to Know
The nation’s health insurance system is undergoing tremendous upheaval as an estimated 8.2 million people will need to find new coverage since pandemic protections for Medicaid enrollees came to an end this spring. That’s leaving many patients confused about how to get new medical insurance. “It’s an overwhelming...
COVID-19 Vaccination and Boosting During Pregnancy Benefits Pregnant People and Newborns
Receiving a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine or booster during pregnancy can benefit pregnant people and their newborn infants, according to findings recently published in Vaccine. The paper describes results from the Multisite Observational Maternal and Infant Study for COVID-19 (MOMI-VAX), which was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.
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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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