HEALTH & WELLNESS

Even Though Telehealth Demand Is Way Up Due To COVID-19 Health Insurers Are Starting To Roll Back Coverage

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Even Though Telehealth Demand Is Way Up Due To COVID-19 Health Insurers Are Starting To Roll Back Coverage

In less than a year, telehealth has gone from a niche rarity to a common practice. Its ability to ensure physical distance, preserve personal protective equipment and prevent the spread of infection among health care workers and patients has been invaluable during the COVID-19 pandemic. As health care specialists and researchers, we have long seen the potential of telehealth, providing health care remotely with technology, which has been around for several decades. Despite evidence it could safely treat and manage a range of health conditions in a cost-effective manner, widespread adoption of the practice had been limited by issues including insurance coverage, restrictions on prescribing and technology access. On March 27, 2020, The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or ...

Digital Divide Initiatives Must Last Beyond The COVID-19 Pandemic To Work

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Digital Divide Initiatives Must Last Beyond The COVID-19 Pandemic To Work

As COVID-19 continues to force many schools to operate remotely, cities throughout the nation are stepping up to provide free internet service to public school students from families of lesser means. Washington, D.C., plans to provide free internet access to K-12 students in 25,000 low-income households for the 2020-2021 school year. In Philadelphia, any family with a public school student lacking internet service can get it free through June of 2022. In Chicago, a similar effort will provide free high-speed internet service to 100,000 public school students over the next four years. Since research consistently shows that students with internet access tend to do better academically than those without, the initiatives in Washington, Philadelphia and Chicago represent a welcome step toward...

15 Minutes Of Exposure And What It Means For You An Epidemiologist Explains The New CDC Guidance

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

15 Minutes Of Exposure And What It Means For You An Epidemiologist Explains The New CDC Guidance

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has new guidance clarifying what exactly “close contact” means when it comes to transmission of SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The previous guidance suggested that a close contact occurred when a person was within six feet of an infectious individual for 15 consecutive minutes. Now, the CDC is acknowledging that even brief contact can lead to transmission. Specifically, the new guidance suggests that those spending a total of 15 minutes of contact with an infectious person over the course of a 24-hour period should be considered in close contact. Despite the change, most public health professionals have been clear for months that there is nothing magic about six feet. In the same way, there is nothing magic about 15 minutes. The...

Resentment Over COVID-19 Shutdowns Is Colliding With Rising Numbers In Rural America

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Resentment Over COVID-19 Shutdowns Is Colliding With Rising Numbers In Rural America

As COVID-19 spreads through rural America, new infection numbers are rising to peaks not seen during this pandemic and pushing hospitals to their limits. Many towns are experiencing their first major outbreaks, but that doesn’t mean rural communities had previously been spared the devastating impacts of the pandemic. Infection rates in rural and frontier communities ebbed and flowed during the first seven months, often showing up in pockets linked to meat packing plants, nursing homes or prisons. Even if they had no cases, many rural areas were under statewide public health orders that left businesses closed and events canceled. And that has become part of the problem today. The early compassionate and cohesive community responses to COVID-19 quickly gave way to growing anger and complia...

Rural Health Cooperatives Are Innovating But Are Challenged By Connectivity And Social Distancing

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, VIDEO REELS

Rural Health Cooperatives Are Innovating But Are Challenged By Connectivity And Social Distancing

Rural areas are seeing some of the fastest spread of the COVID-19 in the U.S., taxing already stressed rural health care systems. Researchers Tanisa Adimu and Amanda Phillips Martinez head the Community Health Systems Development team of the Georgia Health Policy Center at Georgia State University, providing and evaluating technical assistance to rural health care providers and organizations around the country. Over the past months, they surveyed around 120 rural health care providers about the challenges they faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they are adapting to meet those challenges. Tanisa Adimu and Amanda Philips Martinez talk about the challenges rural health providers are facing. New ways to get health data There has been a drop in the number of patients making in-person vi...

The Immune System Metabolism, And Genes Controlling Aging Can Be Influenced By Exposure To Man-Made Chemicals

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

The Immune System Metabolism, And Genes Controlling Aging Can Be Influenced By Exposure To Man-Made Chemicals

Today humans are exposed to thousands of man-made chemicals. Yet the effects on people’s health are still not fully understood. In 2020 the number of registered chemicals reached 167 million. Every day people are exposed to them through food, water, contaminated air, drugs, cosmetics and other man-made substances. Less than 1% of these chemicals were tested for toxicity, and those that were tested demonstrate ability to disrupt almost every biological process in our body. Can we infer how cumulative exposures shape our health? I am an environmental toxicologist studying effects of man-made chemicals on our health. I decided to develop a computational approach to objectively compare sensitivity of all genes to all chemicals and identify the most vulnerable biological processes. Unbiased a...

Immigrants And U.S.-Born Hispanics Have Longer Life Expectancies Than Americans – Will The US Obesity Epidemic Change Things?

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Immigrants And U.S.-Born Hispanics Have Longer Life Expectancies Than Americans – Will The US Obesity Epidemic Change Things?

Anti-immigrant sentiments have fueled recent national and state-level health policy efforts. In 2019, Donald Trump signed a presidential proclamation that would deny visas to immigrants who could not provide proof of insurance. He argued that they would financially burden the health care system. More recently, Missouri’s August election ballot proposed Medicaid expansion, and opponents warned that it would overwhelm Missouri hospitals with undocumented immigrants, even though they are ineligible for Medicaid benefits. We study immigrant health and population health. Our work suggests that viewing immigrants as a drain on the U.S. health care system is largely unfounded. For decades, research has shown that immigrants tend to be healthier than U.S.-born whites. Immigrants outlive U.S.-born...

During The Summer Of COVID, Dementia Deaths Rise Leading To Concern

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

During The Summer Of COVID, Dementia Deaths Rise Leading To Concern

Deaths from dementia during the summer of 2020 are nearly 20% higher than the number of dementia-related deaths during that time in previous years, and experts don’t yet know why. An estimated 61,000 people have died from dementia, which is 11,000 more than usual within that period. “There’s something wrong, there’s something going on and it needs to be sorted out,” Robert Anderson, chief of mortality statistics at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a recent interview with Politico. “This is highly unusual.” As a geriatrician, I find this statistic sad but not shocking. I care for dementia patients in my clinical practice. I see firsthand how the isolation caused by the pandemic has changed their lives, whether they’re home alone, living with a caregiver, or in ...

Socialized Health Care For Trump. What About the Rest of Us?

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Socialized Health Care For Trump. What About the Rest of Us?

We don’t know what course COVID-19 will take with Donald Trump. The White House insists he is well, even as the barrage of aggressive and even experimental treatments he’s received suggests his case is more severe than they let on. But we do know that if anyone with the virus—not to mention someone with Trump’s increased risk factors—has a good chance of pulling through, it’s him. Trump is tested regularly, so he knew at the earliest possible moment that he was infected (even if he didn’t wear a mask or cancel public events afterward). He has doctors at his side, with their sole focus on him and his wife. He has access to all available treatments and even to treatments that aren’t yet available to the public. Unlike millions of Americans, Trump didn’t have to wait for symptoms to qualif...

Trump’s Wealth May Be The Best Medicine In Fighting COVID-19

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Trump’s Wealth May Be The Best Medicine In Fighting COVID-19

With President Donald Trump testing positive for coronavirus, speculation has begun regarding possible outcomes. The reality is, it’s impossible to say for certain what will happen to an individual once they’ve contracted COVID. Some people might have no symptoms at all, while others might have far worse outcomes. It’s one of the many mysteries of the virus that scientists worldwide are working around the clock to untangle. When it comes to risk, we do know some things, but many remain uncertain. We can change some things, and some we’re stuck with. It’s now common knowledge that age is the most important factor driving the risk of worse outcomes from COVID. Being male, living with obesity, being from a non-White ethnic group and having long-term conditions—such as diabetes and heart dise...