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Biden’s Straight-Talking CDC Director Has Long Used Data to Save Lives
This story is part of a partnership that includes WBUR, NPR and KHN. It can be republished for free. In early December, Dr. Katy Stephenson was watching TV with her family and scrolling through Twitter when she saw a tweet that made her shout. “I said ‘Oh, my God!'” she recalled. “Super loud. My kids jumped up. My husband looked over. He said, ‘What’s wrong, what’s wrong, is everything OK?’ I was like, ‘No, no, it’s the opposite. It’s amazing. This is amazing!'” Dr. Rochelle Walensky had just been tapped to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Stephenson is an infectious diseas...
Kaiser Health News
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Why AstraZeneca and J&J’s Vaccines, In Use Elsewhere, Are Still on Hold in America
This story also ran on Fortune. It can be republished for free. The World Health Organization greenlighted emergency use of AstraZeneca and Oxford’s covid-19 vaccine this month, following in the steps of the United Kingdom, the European Union and others, who are already injecting it as quickly as possible into the masses. But the United States is still waiting. As covid deaths mount daily, critics say the Food and Drug Administration is moving too slowly. Meanwhile, the novel coronavirus is evolving, with new variants stalking populations the world over. “We are truly in a race and this race i...
Kaiser Health News
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College Tuition Sparked a Mental Health Crisis. Then the Hefty Hospital Bill Arrived.
This story also ran on NPR. It can be republished for free. Despite a lifelong struggle with panic attacks, Divya Singh made a brave move across the world last fall from her home in Mumbai, India. She enrolled at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, to study physics and explore an interest in standup comedy in Manhattan. Arriving in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic and isolated in her dorm room, Singh’s anxiety ballooned when her family had trouble coming up with the money for a $16,000 tuition installment. Hofstra warned her she would have to vacate the dorm after the term ended if sh...
Kaiser Health News
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As Covid Surged, Vaccines Came Too Late for at Least 400 Medical Workers
This story also ran on The Guardian. It can be republished for free. As health care workers in the U.S. began lining up for their first coronavirus vaccines on Dec. 14, Esmeralda Campos-Loredo was already fighting for oxygen. The 49-year-old nursing assistant and mother of two started having breathing problems just days earlier. By the time the first of her co-workers were getting shots, she was shivering in a tent in the parking lot of a Los Angeles hospital because no medical beds were available. When she gasped for air, she had to wait all day for relief due to a critical shortage of oxygen...
Kaiser Health News
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Learning to Live Again: A Lazarus Tale From the Covid Front Lines
This story also ran on LAist. It can be republished for free. The twinkle in his eyes, the delight in his smile, the joyous way he moved his disease-withered frame. They all proclaimed a single, resounding message: Grateful to be alive! “As my care team and my family tell me, ‘You were born again. You have to learn to live again,’” said Vicente Perez Castro. “I went through a very difficult time.” Hell and back is more like it. Perez, a 57-year-old cook from Long Beach, California, could barely breathe when he was admitted on June 5 to Los Angeles County’s Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He tested...
Kaiser Health News
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As Covid Surged, Vaccines Came Too Late for at Least 400 Medical Workers
This story also ran on The Guardian. It can be republished for free. As health care workers in the U.S. began lining up for their first coronavirus vaccines on Dec. 14, Esmeralda Campos-Loredo was already fighting for oxygen. The 49-year-old nursing assistant and mother of two started having breathing problems just days earlier. By the time the first of her co-workers were getting shots, she was shivering in a tent in the parking lot of a Los Angeles hospital because no medical beds were available. When she gasped for air, she had to wait all day for relief due to a critical shortage of oxygen...
California Healthline
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Why AstraZeneca and J&J’s Vaccines, In Use Elsewhere, Are Still on Hold in America
This story also ran on Fortune. It can be republished for free. The World Health Organization greenlighted emergency use of AstraZeneca and Oxford’s covid-19 vaccine this month, following in the steps of the United Kingdom, the European Union and others, who are already injecting it as quickly as possible into the masses. But the United States is still waiting. As covid deaths mount daily, critics say the Food and Drug Administration is moving too slowly. Meanwhile, the novel coronavirus is evolving, with new variants stalking populations the world over. “We are truly in a race and this race i...
California Healthline
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Biden’s Straight-Talking CDC Director Has Long Used Data to Save Lives
This story is part of a partnership that includes WBUR, NPR and KHN. It can be republished for free. In early December, Dr. Katy Stephenson was watching TV with her family and scrolling through Twitter when she saw a tweet that made her shout. “I said ‘Oh, my God!'” she recalled. “Super loud. My kids jumped up. My husband looked over. He said, ‘What’s wrong, what’s wrong, is everything OK?’ I was like, ‘No, no, it’s the opposite. It’s amazing. This is amazing!'” Dr. Rochelle Walensky had just been tapped to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Stephenson is an infectious diseas...
California Healthline
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Black Churches Fill a Unique Role in Combating Vaccine Fears
This story also ran on The Mercury News. It can be republished for free. In the hospital with covid-19 in December, Lavina Wafer tired of the tubes in her nose and wondered impatiently why she couldn’t be discharged. A phone call with her pastor helped her understand that the tube was piping in lifesaving oxygen, which had to be slowly tapered to protect her. Now that Wafer, 70, is well and back home in Richmond, California, she’s looking to her pastor for advice about the covid vaccines. Though she doubts they’re as wonderful as the government claims, she plans to get vaccinated anyway — beca...
California Healthline
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Five-step approach to public health
Effective public health programmes call for dedicated methods that offer comprehensive and practical solutions to challenging situations. By Dr. Ilham Zaidi Young, enthusiastic, budding public health professionals often enquire about the ways to ensure optimal results from a delivery programme. “What are the best strengthening exercises for our health systems?” they ask. Although there are multiple theories, I follow a simple process that has stood me in good stead. It’s a basic five-step process that has stayed with all my students, whether or not they choose to continue working in the field ...
Health Analytics
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