In the middle of a pandemic with a novel virus that has infected at least 2.5 million Americans and killed roughly 127,000, and with 20 million people jobless, what is a prime Republican response? They are advancing yet again a court case to strip tens of millions of poor, working poor, and middle-class Americans of ….
Continue ReadingArchives for June 2020
Some thoughts about Independence Day in the thrall of a pandemic
The United States heads into a long weekend celebrating 244 years of its independence in the deepening thrall of a microscopic killer. And political partisans, with their failure to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, will push further still in the days ahead to divide what has been a remarkable, diverse union of states. Unlike virtually….
Continue ReadingThey’re called ‘nursing’ homes. But what medical care can they really offer?
What’s in a name? The Covid-19 pandemic should force a major change in the big misnomer of long-term care institutions: Let’s stop labeling them with the term nursing — as if they provide significant medical services to the elderly, sick, and injured. Instead, the coronavirus may lead the public to bust the myth put forward….
Continue ReadingNew twists with job-related health coverage for unemployed and vulnerable
Wall Street investors may be seeing their portfolios flush again. But the Covid-19 pandemic has left tens of millions of Americans jobless. And if the once-flourishing health care business has not snapped back into rosy condition as it so often has in difficult times, the battle of the last decade over health insurance will haunt….
Continue ReadingConcern rises over bias in race-based algorithms for medical decision-making
High-tech wizards may be pushing medicine into a brave new world where important medical decisions rely on supposedly data-driven findings that also may be rooted in an old malignancy: discrimination against black patients. A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine warns that race-based tools and formulas, algorithms aimed to assist doctors….
Continue ReadingDetails build on authorities’ brutal use of ‘less lethal’ projectiles and tear gas
Just as law enforcement authorities find themselves under fire for instances of racist, excessive uses of force, police agencies across the country seem hell-bent on giving critics more and more evidence for their argument that major policing reforms are needed. The independent, nonpartisan Kaiser Health News Service and USA Today deserve credit for scrutinizing dozens….
Continue ReadingPotomac River tragedies offer warning about summer water safety hazards
At least three recent deaths in the DC area offer a grim reminder about the summer’s heat and the risks of drowning. With the Covid-19 pandemic changing the easy and relaxed availability of public and supervised pools and other cool water recreation spots, will this be a harbinger of needless tragedies? Here’s hoping not. But….
Continue ReadingWith viral risks, a new chance to weigh in on obesity, diet and exercise
Health and nutrition experts may get a rare and unexpected chance in the Covid-19 pandemic time to see whether Americans have experienced even a minor reset in their maintaining a more healthful diet, increased exercise, and maybe even reduction in weight gain and its associated problems. To be sure, these have been times of high….
Continue ReadingTwo million-plus reasons why the U.S. cannot falter in battling Covid-19
The shambolic federal response to the Covid-19 pandemic has splintered the United States, with coronavirus infections rising in just under half the states (see NYT graphic, right) since Memorial Day and with too many Americans eager to whistle past the graveyard. The nation leads the world in negative outcomes, with more than 2 million diagnosed….
Continue ReadingWhy does lethal bungling persist in fixing the Covid-19 nursing-home mess?
Hundreds of thousands of institutionalized Americans have been infected with the novel coronavirus. Tens of thousands of them are dead. Yet a lethal bungling persists in the response to Covid-19’s savaging of residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. Why? Their owners and operators agree with medical scientists that significantly more testing is….
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