Health Care Headlines

The U.S. Army will start testing among adult volunteers an Army-developed Covid-19 vaccine that researchers say may protect against a variety of coronavirus variants.

Providers are gearing up for a fight over infrastructure funding, with lobbyists pushing for billions of dollars to modernize and expand facilities, build up the workforce and prepare for the next pandemic.

As COVID-19 cases surged last December, 100 seriously ill patients streamed into the ER of Martin Luther King Jr Community Hospital (MLKCH) in south Los Angeles every day. Staff at the 131-bed safety net hospital erected five tents outside the ER — and converted the gift shop and lobby into an overflow area — to accommodate all the patients.

A new vaccine for Covid-19 that is entering clinical trials in Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam could change how the world fights the pandemic.

The U.S. drug regulator gave Moderna Inc clearance to speed up output of its COVID-19 vaccine by letting it fill a single vial with up to 15 doses, with the United States banking on rapid immunization to stem the spread of the deadly virus. 

The pandemic’s negative impact on the mental health of millions of people has renewed discussions around why that nation’s behavioral healthcare system has been inadequate to meet the level demand for care.

AHA President and CEO Rick J. Pollack tells President Biden that the COVID-19 pandemic has crippled the nation’s hospitals.

About 1 in 5 U.S. adults have forgone healthcare over the past year because they couldn’t afford it. Black and Hispanic Americans were disproportionately impacted.

City of Hope Orange County, a nonprofit cancer research and treatment center based in Irvine, California, announced Wednesday morning that it received a $50 million philanthropic donation from Lennar Corporation, a Florida-based home construction company.

The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday voted to formalize new procedures and criteria for its COVID-19 telehealth program.

Well before the rollout of the first approved COVID-19 vaccine, questions loomed over how those tasked with its administration planned to ensure access for member of communities hardest hit by the pandemic.

More young adults in the United States reported feeling anxious or depressed during the past six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and fewer people reported getting the help they needed, according to a U.S. government study released on Friday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to stop operating two mass vaccination sites in California next month.

Before California throws open its coronavirus vaccine program to all adults on April 15, there will be a two-week window when millions of people between the ages of 50 and 64 can get their shot.

Starting immediately, the state is also officially allowing family members who come to an appointment with anyone who’s eligible to also be vaccinated. Gov. Newsom said this would be done “no questions asked.”

Senate leaders have reached an agreement to extend a Medicare pay bump for health care providers through 2021, a major lobbying win for hospitals.

ARP will bolster hospital margins by reducing the numbers of uninsured, which is a credit positive.

On March 13, 2020, the 25-bed critical-access hospital in Batesville, Ind., saw its first patient with COVID-19. Two weeks later, the hospital was slammed with patients presenting with severe abdominal pain, headaches and backaches, many of whom were crashing and needed a ventilator within five to six hours.

Pfizer Inc. said it has begun human safety testing of a new pill to treat the coronavirus that could be used at the first sign of illness.

L.A. County Health Officer Dr. Muntu Davis says that the county is working to make sure unhoused individuals don’t slip through the cracks.

The same technology expected to make increasingly immersive virtual reality, driverless cars and other “smart” products possible will also improve hospital processes and patient care—at least, that’s what some early adopters are hoping.

In just a matter of weeks, California may phase out its COVID-19 vaccine priority tiers, making all adults in the state (everyone 16-and-over) eligible for a shot.

The U.S. House of Represenatives passed legislation Friday that would prevent Medicare cuts to providers but its future is unclear in the Senate, where Republicans are bitter over the recently passed COVID-19 relief bill that passed along party lines.

Santa Barbara County has detected its first cases of the U.K. variant of the coronavirus, health officials reported Thursday.  According to the Santa Barbara County Health Department (PHD), the two residents are the first to test positive in the county. The cases were unrelated and neither person had traveled abroad. Both recovered.

A San Bernardino man has contracted the first known California case of the Brazilian strain of the coronavirus, San Bernardino County health officials announced Sunday.

The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) has been on the front lines of the cyber-assault on businesses, especially healthcare, by criminals since well before the pandemic struck.

Joe Biden will direct states to make all American adults eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines no later than May 1 in his first prime-time address as president Thursday night, according to a senior administration official.

While health insurers should see significant wins with billions of dollars in subsidies to help laid-off workers keep their coverage, hospitals were denied most of the additional relief they requested to deal with the pandemic’s financial pressures.

In the year-long fight against coronavirus, this seemingly simple event capped a milestone for hundreds of Huntington Beach residents: On Friday, March 5, they lined up in a hospital parking lot for their second doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

Gerald Hudson had been trying unsuccessfully to get the vaccine through his kidney dialysis clinic in Hayward.

Garcetti said thousands of doses will be administered each day at the site once it’s fully operational, and as more vaccines come to the city.

When experts envision the future of the coronavirus, many predict that it will become a seasonal pathogen that won’t be much more than a nuisance for most of us who have been vaccinated or previously exposed to it.

President Joe Biden announced Tuesday the U.S. will have enough vaccine supply for every American adult by the end of May, two months sooner than expected, and said he is directing states to prioritize schools workers to receive their first vaccine dose by the end of March.

Regional health systems are still dealing with the fallout from delaying non-urgent procedures, depressed volumes, higher expenses as well as the physical and mental health toll of COVID-19 on their staff.

And then there were three. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to the Ad26.COV2.S vaccine from Janssen/Johnson & Johnson (J&J) for people 18 and older after reviewing its safety and efficacy data.

Several healthcare trends had been well underway before COVID-19: more outpatient services and a nurse shortage, to name a couple. Then the pandemic struck, and they took off like wildfire.

Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine protects against COVID-19, according to an analysis by U.S. regulators Wednesday. The analysis sets the stage for a final decision on a new and easier-to-use shot to help tame the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has both highlighted and worsened the world’s underlying mental and behavioral-health challenges. Social isolation, loss of income and health coverage, anxiety about acquiring COVID-19, and concern about loved ones falling ill have placed a tremendous strain on all of us.

Drugmakers won’t have to perform massive trials for new vaccines or booster shots developed to combat worrisome new variants of the coronavirus, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.

California’s new system of delivering, tracking and scheduling coronavirus vaccines is being rolled out in select counties, a first step in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to smooth out what has been a confusing and disjointed rollout hampered by limited national supply.

While community health workers (CHWs) and peers operate under many different job titles, they share the critical role of “connector,” linking community members to systems of care and fostering relationships with clients based on shared experience and a deep sense of empathy.

Several healthcare trends had been well underway before COVID-19: more outpatient services and a nurse shortage, to name a couple. Then the pandemic struck, and they took off like wildfire.

The icy blast across much of the U.S. injected more confusion and frustration into the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination drive Wednesday just when it was gathering speed, snarling vaccine deliveries and forcing the cancellation of countless shots around the country.

Blue Shield of California will use an algorithm with a “focus on equity” to distribute COVID-19 vaccines in California under a contract that outlines how the insurer will oversee the state’s distribution process, according to The Los Angeles Times. 

California leaders on Monday, Feb. 15, released the first round of details of the long-promised contract with healthcare giant Blue Shield of California to administer the state’s mammoth coronavirus vaccine rollout. 

On Saturday, the seven-day rolling average for deaths was around 2,500. That number peaked at more than 3,300 earlier in the winter, according to Johns Hopkins.

If the U.S. Covid-19 epidemic were a marathon, the country might have made it to Mile 20. It’s been through a lot, and already, there are signs things are getting better. But there are building leg cramps that could make this last push, which isn’t actually all that short, really painful.

In California, which has prioritized seniors and health care workers, Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced a federal partnership for mass vaccination sites set to open next week in Oakland and east Los Angeles, saying the locations were chosen to target working-class “communities that are often left behind.”

Many Los Angeles County hospitals are beginning to gradually return to normal, although patient levels still remained relatively high, health officials said Monday, Feb. 8.

A new study finds that cases of a more contagious coronavirus variant are rapidly increasing in the United States, and significant community transmission may already be occurring.

Due to an extreme shortage in the coronavirus vaccine, Los Angeles County vaccination sites will only be giving out second doses beginning Tuesday and lasting through at least the end of this week.

Less than 1% of positive specimens in the U.S. are being sequenced to determine whether they have worrisome mutations. Other countries do better and can more quickly see threats coming at them.

Johnson & Johnson’s candidate would be the world’s first approved single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, an easier-to-use option that could boost scarce supplies.

Zipline Inc., a drone delivery service that specializes in medical supplies, announced Thursday that it plans to begin transporting COVID-19 vaccines in April. The South San Francisco-based startup said in a release that it is partnering with “a leading manufacturer of COVID-19 vaccines” in all of the markets where its drones currently operate.

California will receive an additional 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from the federal government this week as the state’s rocky rollout to inoculate millions continues to draw criticism from residents and officials.

Drug stores have become a mainstay for flu shots and shingles vaccines, and the industry is capable of vaccinating tens of millions of people monthly.

Following a week that saw, on average, more than 200 people die from COVID-19 each day, and a months-long surge of cases, Los Angeles County health officials are finally reporting fewer fatalities.

To start 2021, Sara Kollman, a top nurse administrator with Kaiser Permanente based in Colorado, found herself in a place she wouldn’t have imagined a year ago: working as an ICU nurse in a hospital in southern California.

In Los Angeles County, the stay-at-home orders and a ban on outdoor dining were followed by a drop in the transmission rate — a measure known as “R” that reflects how many people a sick person on average infects — from 1.2 before the orders to 0.85 by early January. Anything above 1.0 means an outbreak will grow exponentially.

Johnson & Johnson said that the single-shot vaccine was 66% effective overall at preventing moderate to severe illness in the U.S. and seven other countries.

The federal government has issued a directive that aims to bolster the COVID-19 vaccination workforce, by letting physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals return to work even if their license has expired, as long as it expired within the past 5 years and was previously in good standing.

A coronavirus vaccine developed by Novavax is more than 89% effective in preventing COVID-19, the company announced Thursday, although it is not as useful in preventing infections of a fast-spreading variant of the virus that first emerged in South Africa.

Two people familiar with the plan said the new enrollment period would not go into effect immediately. Instead, the White House wants to provide time for HHS to mount a marketing campaign, and for insurers to get ready for an influx of new customers.

The president’s plan calls for doubling the number of drive-through testing sites and investing in new testing technologies, particularly at-home and rapid tests.

While the US seems to be heading in the right direction on infection rates — with 42 states reporting downward trends – that progress could be erased if variants take hold, emergency physician Dr. Leana Wen told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. Preventing that will mean extra vigilance. “If there is something more contagious among us, if we thought that going to the grocery store before was relatively safe, there’s actually a higher likelihood of contracting coronavirus through those every day activities,” she said.

Drugmaker Merck & Co on Monday said it will end development of its two COVID-19 vaccines, and will focus pandemic research on treatments, with initial efficacy data on an experimental oral antiviral expected by the end of March.

As a student nurse, Naomi Muñiz had only given a real shot one time. Yet there she stood inside Long Beach Memorial Hospital, preparing to inoculate healthcare workers against COVID-19 — veteran nurses lining up before her and staff treating vials of the vaccine “as literally gold.”

California lifted regional stay-at-home orders across the state Monday in response to improving coronavirus conditions, returning the state to a system of county-by-county restrictions, state health officials announced.

Veterans are sought to participate in a Veterans Affairs research study on factors that contribute to headaches and neck pain in veterans with mild traumatic brain injury, aka TBI. Results of the study are intended to help researchers better understand the reasons for headaches and neck pain after TBI and may lead to improved treatment. The study is open to veterans ages 18-55 who have had TBI.

UC Regents on Thursday, Jan. 21, approved a $1 billion medical complex with a 144-bed hospital next to UC Irvine’s main campus. Their approval clears the way for the university and its medical arm to get started on UC Irvine Medical Center Irvine-Newport, a multi-building complex that will offer specialty care in oncology, neurosciences, children’s health and other areas. It will not replace the large medical center the university operates in Orange.

President Joe Biden assumes office with an arsenal of health care veterans leading his coronavirus response — but his team’s handwringing has left an agency central to the pandemic fight without a permanent leader.

Amazon sent a letter to President Biden in his first hours of office Wednesday offering to assist the new administration with its coronavirus vaccine distribution. 

As the coronavirus swept across the globe last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sank into the shadows, undermined by some of its own mistakes and stifled by an administration bent on downplaying the nation’s suffering.

The Long Beach Convention Center parking lot — known locally as the “Elephant Lot” — is open once again. This time, it’s serving as a mass COVID-19 vaccination site.

The new mutation is different from the highly contagious strain first discovered in the United Kingdom, which also has public health officials worried.

The grim milestone, as tallied by Johns Hopkins University, wasn’t entirely unexpected in a state with 40 million residents but its speed stunning. The state only reached 2 million reported cases on Dec. 24.

With Covid-19 cases climbing across the U.S., Direct Relief continues to respond to requests from hospitals and health facilities for essential medical aid. 

In these first lumbering weeks of the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history, Dr. Julie Vaishampayan has had a battlefront view of a daunting logistical operation.

The head of Operation Warp Speed believes the COVID-19 virus is here to stay, and how the country has responded to this crisis can act as a playbook for dealing with the next global pandemic.

After a frustratingly slow rollout involving primarily healthcare workers and nursing home residents, states are moving on to the next phase before the first one is complete, making COVID-19 shots available to such groups as senior citizens, teachers, bus drivers, police officers and firefighters.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar said the Trump administration is now asking states to vaccinate people age 65 and over and those under 65 with underlying health conditions that put them at high risk.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department is helping local emergency departments that are experiencing challenges with patient overflow and ambulance turnover by implementing the Hospital EMS Surge Assistance Plan.

HHS on Thursday extended its COVID-19 public health emergency declaration, which is attached to increased funding for healthcare providers and regulatory flexibilities.

Los Angeles plans to turn its massive coronavirus testing site at Dodger Stadium into a vaccination distribution center this week, with officials hoping to vaccinate up to 12,000 people a day when the site is fully operational, city and county officials announced Sunday night.

California reported its second-highest number of daily coronavirus deaths Wednesday with 459 lives lost, bringing the death toll to 2,504 in the last week as more than a quarter-million new weekly cases portended a continued overwhelming crush on hospitals and intensive care units strained to the breaking point.

Four additional vaccination sites for health care workers opened Wednesday in the San Fernando Valley and Eastside of Los Angeles, bringing city sites’ collective capacity up to about 2,000 vaccinations per day.

More than $19 billion will be allocated to states and local jurisdictions to aid testing as well as $3 billion to boost vaccination campaigns.

The U.S. could soon be giving at least a million COVID-19 vaccinations a day despite the sluggish start, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday, even as he warned of a dangerous next few weeks as the coronavirus surges.

Hospitals face the new year with new requirements to post price information they have long sought to obscure: the actual prices negotiated with insurers and the discounts they offer their cash-paying customers.

Julie Sprenger, previously the president of Dignity Health Southern California, has been named to a new role in the company: President of CommonSpirit Health’s newly expanded Southern California Division.

Community Hospital Long Beach, which was closed in 2018, reopens Monday to help ease the burden on other hospitals overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.

The campaign to vanquish the coronavirus is picking up speed, with Britain beginning to dispense the second vaccine in its arsenal Monday, and India, the world’s second-most populous country, authorizing its first shots.

The pandemic is getting worse in Los Angeles as the coronavirus spreads rapidly within households and Californians let their guard down, according to Mayor Eric Garcetti, who said Sunday that the nation’s most populous county is recording a new COVID-19 case every six seconds.

President-elect Joe Biden announced his plan to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, including delivering 100 million vaccine shots in his first 100 days in office — enough to cover 50 million people.

California became the first state to record 2 million confirmed coronavirus cases, reaching the milestone on Christmas Eve as nearly the entire state was under a strict stay-at-home order and hospitals were flooded with the largest crush of cases since the pandemic began.