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Firefighters — ‘Health Care Providers on a Truck’ — Signal Pandemic Burnout
This story also ran on KCUR. It can be republished for free. Tim Dupin thought — or at least hoped — that Missouri firefighters, paramedics and other emergency medical services personnel would be among the first to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. After months of feeling overlooked by elected leaders in the distribution of safety equipment and other resources, surely, Dupin thought, their role on the front line of the medical system would be recognized. They had, throughout the pandemic, responded to calls the way they always had: Without regard to whom or what they would encounter at t...
California Healthline
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News briefs
Report: COVID-19 death rate 10 times higher in countries where majority of adults are overweightThe death rate from COVID-19 is much higher in countries where the majority of adults are overweight, according to a new report. The World Obesity Forum determined that, by the end of 2020, the mortality rate from the coronavirus was about 10 times greater in countries where more than 50% of the adult population is overweight compared with nations where less than half of adult residents met that criteria, the study released Wednesday shows. Included in the study was data from more than 160 countries...
Tribune News Service
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‘Better in your arm than in the trash': With COVID-19 shots in short supply, some are getting vaccinated with leftover doses that might otherwise be wasted
CHICAGO — While taking her mother to get vaccinated against COVID-19, Gillian Malone unexpectedly lucked out and got a shot as well. Her mom’s appointment was the last slot available at a local grocery store pharmacy. Another patient scheduled around the same time never showed up and couldn’t be reached by phone. So the mom asked the pharmacist if Malone — who didn’t have an appointment and would otherwise be ineligible under current vaccination guidelines — could get that dose, which would have expired within hours and could have gone to waste. A few minutes later, 29-year-old Malone of Chica...
Chicago Tribune
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KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Good and Not-So-Good News on Covid
Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen on SoundCloud. There’s good news and bad news on covid-19 this week. On the one hand, several million doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine authorized by the FDA for emergency use are already going into the arms of people around the nation. And the Biden administration has brokered a deal with rival manufacturer Merck to produce even more doses of the J&J vaccine, which can be transported and administered more easily than the covid vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. But at the same time, the covid-19 caseload is starting to ...
Kaiser Health News
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KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Good and Not-So-Good News on Covid
Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen on SoundCloud. There’s good news and bad news on covid-19 this week. On the one hand, several million doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine authorized by the FDA for emergency use are already going into the arms of people around the nation. And the Biden administration has brokered a deal with rival manufacturer Merck to produce even more doses of the J&J vaccine, which can be transported and administered more easily than the covid vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. But at the same time, the covid-19 caseload is starting to ...
California Healthline
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Kaiser Permanente, Big Player in California Vaccine Effort, Has Had Trouble Vaccinating Own Members
USE OUR CONTENT It can be republished for free. As managed-care giant Kaiser Permanente assumes a prominent role in California’s new covid-19 vaccination strategy, it is drawing mixed reviews from members across the country for the way it has run its own vaccine program over the past two months. Conversations with 10 Kaiser enrollees in five states — Colorado, Washington, Virginia, Maryland and California — revealed a common frustration: difficulty snagging an appointment. Many also described receiving sporadic and sometimes confusing information from the company, though some said Kaiser has b...
Kaiser Health News
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Kaiser Permanente, Big Player in State Vaccine Effort, Has Had Trouble Vaccinating Own Members
USE OUR CONTENT It can be republished for free. As managed-care giant Kaiser Permanente assumes a prominent role in California’s new covid-19 vaccination strategy, it is drawing mixed reviews from members across the country for the way it has run its own vaccine program over the past two months. Conversations with 10 Kaiser enrollees in five states — Colorado, Washington, Virginia, Maryland and California — revealed a common frustration: difficulty snagging an appointment. Many also described receiving sporadic and sometimes confusing information from the company, though some said Kaiser has b...
California Healthline
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COVID-19 death rate 10 times higher in countries where majority of adults are overweight, new report says
The death rate from COVID-19 is much higher in countries where the majority of adults are overweight, according to a new report. The World Obesity Forum determined that, by the end of 2020, the mortality rate from the coronavirus was about 10 times greater in countries where more than 50% of the adult population is overweight compared with nations where less than half of adult residents met that criteria, the study released Wednesday shows. Included in the study was data from more than 160 countries, researchers said. “As we show in this report, increased bodyweight is the second greatest pred...
New York Daily News
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Coronavirus Deranges the Immune System in Complex and Deadly Ways
This story also ran on USA Today. It can be republished for free. There’s a reason soldiers go through basic training before heading into combat: Without careful instruction, green recruits armed with powerful weapons could be as dangerous to one another as to the enemy. The immune system works much the same way. Immune cells, which protect the body from infections, need to be “educated” to recognize bad guys — and to hold their fire around civilians. In some covid patients, this education may be cut short. Scientists say unprepared immune cells appear to be responding to the coronavirus with ...
Kaiser Health News
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Reopening of Long-Term Care Facilities Is ‘an Absolute Necessity for Our Well-Being’
For nearly a year, nursing homes and assisted living centers have been mostly closed to visitors. Now, it’s time for them to open back up and relieve residents of crushing isolation, according to a growing chorus of long-term care experts, caregivers, consumer groups and physicians. This story also ran on CNN. It can be republished for free. They’re calling for federal health authorities to relax visitation restrictions in long-term care institutions, replacing guidance that’s been in place since September. And they want both federal and state authorities to grant special status to “essential ...
Kaiser Health News
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