Our regular newsletter editor remains on hiatus, so I鈥檓 back for a second (and final) round providing highlights of all the health care news you missed if you were locked in a closet or otherwise occupied.
While New York City, the Washington metro area, California and other regions loosen their stay-at-home restrictions, coronavirus cases to surpass 2 million domestic infections. increasing in Arizona, Arkansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah. Arizona鈥檚 health director to 鈥渇ully activate鈥 their emergency plans as the state鈥檚 biggest system, Banner Health, said its ICU bed use was nearing capacity.
Dallas County reported of new cases, and there are in Florida. The head of North Carolina鈥檚 health and human services department 鈥 that 鈥渢his is an early warning sign for us that we really need to take seriously and make sure that we don’t forget that COVID-19 is with us.” Yet some public health officials are being harassed or pushed out of their jobs.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, 鈥渕y worst nightmare鈥 and underscored that 鈥渋t isn鈥檛 over yet.鈥 He said that AIDS, the disease caused by HIV, was in comparison because the coronavirus presents so differently in different people.
county applications for further reopenings, but governors in other states to impose or reimpose restrictions. So do some individuals. A Houston hospital CEO , 鈥淚 have been to pools where there are 100 people crowded in, and that鈥檚 not safe behavior.鈥
In The Hot Spots
Journalist Sara Shipley Hiles traveled to the Ozarks for KHN to see how the tourist season was shaping up, and found it鈥檚 going bananas after a shoulder-to-shoulder Memorial Day Weekend that went viral on social media. One resident said people have been eager to get out of the house because 鈥渋t鈥檚 just the nature of freedom lovers.鈥 Health authorities discovered one such freedom lover who was possibly already infected with the coronavirus partied through an ambitious Memorial Day itinerary that included stops at Backwater Jacks, Buffalo Wild Wings, Shady Gators and the Lazy Gators pool.
As President Donald Trump鈥檚 campaign prepares to resume rallies, attendees are waivers that they won鈥檛 sue if they get COVID-19. Joe Biden is warning of a second wave and so that workers can return to their jobs.
The federal response continues to be pilloried as insufficient as to figure out how to expand testing and . A fifth of nursing homes still lack sufficient personal protective equipment despite Trump鈥檚 promise to 鈥渄eploy every resource and power that we have鈥 to protect older Americans.鈥 Instead of proper medical gowns, a government contractor has been sending homes plastic ponchos without armholes that a nursing home administrator says look like trash bags.
To find supplies on their own, health care workers are resorting to desperate measures, including parking-lot meetings to negotiate gown purchases and arrangements with 鈥渟hady characters鈥 to blend their own hand sanitizer. Massachusetts has to the gray market out of desperation, inking contracts with a businessman with expertise in selfie-taking equipment and a company run out of a New Jersey home.
Chris Kirkham and Benjamin Lesser at Reuters took a at how already-low nursing home staffing levels, a perennial concern for residents and their families, have gotten worse during the pandemic. Nursing home nurses and aides told them staffers are quitting 鈥渋n large numbers鈥 for fear of getting sick and because of a lack of testing and protective gear, and management鈥檚 downplaying of the dangers. Katie Thomas at The New York Times found some to pay for testing rather than pay for it themselves.
In The Hot Seat
Heeding persistent complaints that provider relief money wasn鈥檛 helping those most in need, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department announced it would to safety-net providers, including $10 billion to about 750 hospitals that treat the most poor or uninsured patients.
The Wall Street Journal autopsies and finds plenty of blame to apportion, including hospitals that transferred patients who were so sick they should not have been sent elsewhere, changing state and city guidelines about when sick health care workers could come back, and problems in obtaining personal protective equipment. 鈥淲e are not running these ICUs safely or appropriately,鈥 a resident wrote in an email to the attending physicians at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia. 鈥淭he emotional burden of working in these sci-fi-movie-gone-wrong ICUs is through the roof.鈥
So Young
Researchers and doctors are still trying to decipher how the virus injures children in a small number of cases known as pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome. NPR鈥檚 Peter Breslow and Lulu Garcia-Navarro , D.C., are handling the cases. One big mystery is how the syndrome afflicts children differently than adults, since a majority of the kids did not test positive for the virus but did have antibodies. 鈥淚s this acute viral? Is this post-infectious? Is it a combination? We’ve got to figure this out in our patient cohort,鈥 one doctor told NPR. In Queens, St. Mary鈥檚 Hospital for Children for each hospitalized child to move in during their stay.
Another medical mystery is why the debilitating symptoms of the virus for more than 60 days in some people, including younger ones in great shape. 鈥淚鈥檓 better, but the hardest, most confusing thing about this is that I鈥檓 not well,鈥 one triathlete told The Washington Post鈥檚 Ariana Eunjung Cha and Lenny Bernstein.
Medical Advances
The first-known in a COVID patient, a Hispanic woman in her 20s, occurred at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Dr. Ankit Bharat, Northwestern’s chief of thoracic surgery, said he鈥檚 been contacted by health centers around the country to see if Northwestern would perform transplants on their patients, and five other patients are now being evaluated as candidates.
Researchers are looking at against tuberculosis and polio to see if they might be useful to fight COVID-19, and seeing be used to ward off all diseases spread by the insects. If the rest of this week鈥檚 crop of we-–-a--or--产耻迟-飞别鈥檙别--on- updates are too numerous to digest, The New York Times has a of where individual vaccination efforts stand. The Urban Institute published a summarizing state policy responses, data and other relevant information on COVID, food, income, housing and elections. This tracker of trackers 鈥 very meta! 鈥 will be updated monthly, .
Do Not Disturb
The will be changing as chains try to provide psychological comfort that their guests will not check out with a case of 鈥渃orona.鈥 Chains such as Hilton are asking guests to use mobile apps to unlock their rooms rather than giving them key cards. Buffets are being replaced with prepacked foods, coffee stations are gone, and if you want one of DoubleTree鈥檚 warm chocolate chip cookies, you鈥檒l need to ask for it. The Beverly Hills Hilton is using a 3-foot-tall robot named Kennedy that into rooms to kill germs.
Finally, the New York Times鈥 Modern Love column offers of how relationships are going in pandemic isolation. The tl;dr version is: not so hot for everyone. A wife wants to scream every time her husband yells 鈥渨oo鈥 as his go-to response; a couple stuck in a studio apartment is celebrating their one-year anniversary by spending a week apart; and a 30-year-old living with her boyfriend in New Jersey declares she鈥檚 moving across the country when their lease is up. On the positive side, a grandmother is doing the swiping for her granddaughter on dating sites; two roommates, one 83 and the other 27, enjoy ogling handsome men on TV, and a couple in Florida now argue in British accents so they 诲辞苍鈥檛 take themselves too seriously.
Enjoy the weekend, and if you鈥檙e in the Ozarks, try to limit yourself to one gator-themed venue per day.
