July 24, 2020This story also ran on .There’s a gap in Scott Olsen’s memory for the night of Oct. 25, 2011.The Iraq War vet remembers leaving his tech job in the San Francisco Bay Area and taking a BART train to join an against economic and social inequality.He remembers standing near protesters who faced off with Oakland police officers bristling with riot gear.He remembers being carried away by other protesters.But not the moment when a “bean bag” round fired from an officer’s 12-gauge shotgun crashed into the left side of his head, fracturing his skull and inflicting a near-fatal brain...…July 24, 2020This story also ran on .There’s a gap in Scott Olsen’s memory for the night of Oct. 25, 2011.The Iraq War vet remembers leaving his tech job in the San Francisco Bay Area and taking a BART train to join an against economic and social inequality.He remembers standing near protesters who faced off with Oakland police officers bristling with riot gear.He remembers being carried away by other protesters.But not the moment when a “bean bag” round fired from an officer’s 12-gauge shotgun crashed into the left side of his head, fracturing his skull and inflicting a near-fatal brain...WW…

June 19, 2020This story also ran on .Warning: Graphic images and video below.Megan Matthews thought she was dying.“I thought my head was blown off,” said Matthews, 22, who was hit in the eye with a sponge-tipped projectile fired by law enforcement at a May 29 protest in Denver. “Everything was dark. I couldn’t see.”Matthews, a soft-spoken art major who lives with her mother, had gone to the demonstration against police brutality carrying bandages, water bottles and milk so she could provide first aid to protesters.“I couldn’t really grasp how bad my injury was,” said Matthews, who sustained...…June 19, 2020This story also ran on .Warning: Graphic images and video below.Megan Matthews thought she was dying.“I thought my head was blown off,” said Matthews, 22, who was hit in the eye with a sponge-tipped projectile fired by law enforcement at a May 29 protest in Denver. “Everything was dark. I couldn’t see.”Matthews, a soft-spoken art major who lives with her mother, had gone to the demonstration against police brutality carrying bandages, water bottles and milk so she could provide first aid to protesters.“I couldn’t really grasp how bad my injury was,” said Matthews, who sustained...WW…

This story also ran on .David Aguirre jumped in his truck and drove toward the hospital in the predawn darkness the minute he got the news: His 91-year-old mom was being rushed from her Texas assisted living facility to the emergency room.Estela Aguirre would be one of five residents to die and six others to be sickened by the novel coronavirus at The Waterford at College Station, part of a financially strapped chain of assisted living sites called Capital Senior Living.“My mom was a sweet, kind person. People really felt like they’d known her for 100 years. She was just that kind of soul,”...…This story also ran on .David Aguirre jumped in his truck and drove toward the hospital in the predawn darkness the minute he got the news: His 91-year-old mom was being rushed from her Texas assisted living facility to the emergency room.Estela Aguirre would be one of five residents to die and six others to be sickened by the novel coronavirus at The Waterford at College Station, part of a financially strapped chain of assisted living sites called Capital Senior Living.“My mom was a sweet, kind person. People really felt like they’d known her for 100 years. She was just that kind of soul,”...WW…

March 20, 2020This story also ran on .More than half the counties in America have no intensive care beds, posing a particular danger for more than 7 million people who are age 60 and up ― older patients who face the highest risk of serious illness or death from the rapid spread of COVID-19, a Kaiser Health News data analysis shows.Intensive care units have sophisticated equipment, such as bedside machines to monitor a patient’s heart rate and ventilators to help them breathe. Even in communities with ICU beds, the numbers vary wildly ― with some having just one bed available for thousands...…March 20, 2020This story also ran on .More than half the counties in America have no intensive care beds, posing a particular danger for more than 7 million people who are age 60 and up ― older patients who face the highest risk of serious illness or death from the rapid spread of COVID-19, a Kaiser Health News data analysis shows.Intensive care units have sophisticated equipment, such as bedside machines to monitor a patient’s heart rate and ventilators to help them breathe. Even in communities with ICU beds, the numbers vary wildly ― with some having just one bed available for thousands...WW…

This article was published more than 1 year agoCommentGift ShareUniversity of Virginia Health System, which for years has sued thousands of patients annually for unpaid bills, said Monday it will cancel a massive backlog of court judgments and liens resulting from lawsuits dating to the 1990s.Combined with reforms UVA announced in 2019, the move is likely to benefit tens of thousands of families and make UVA Health’s collections policies much more generous than those of many hospital systems, said experts who study health-care finance. The decision to wipe out liens that can drain home...…This article was published more than 1 year agoCommentGift ShareUniversity of Virginia Health System, which for years has sued thousands of patients annually for unpaid bills, said Monday it will cancel a massive backlog of court judgments and liens resulting from lawsuits dating to the 1990s.Combined with reforms UVA announced in 2019, the move is likely to benefit tens of thousands of families and make UVA Health’s collections policies much more generous than those of many hospital systems, said experts who study health-care finance. The decision to wipe out liens that can drain home...WW…

University of Virginia Health System, which for years has sued thousands of patients annually for unpaid bills, said Monday it will cancel a massive backlog of court judgments and liens resulting from those lawsuits dating to the 1990s.This story also ran on . It can beCombined with reforms UVA announced in 2019, the move is likely to benefit tens of thousands of families and make UVA Health’s collections policies much more generous than those of many hospital systems, said scholars who study health care finance. The decision to wipe out liens that can drain home equity years after a...…University of Virginia Health System, which for years has sued thousands of patients annually for unpaid bills, said Monday it will cancel a massive backlog of court judgments and liens resulting from those lawsuits dating to the 1990s.This story also ran on . It can beCombined with reforms UVA announced in 2019, the move is likely to benefit tens of thousands of families and make UVA Health’s collections policies much more generous than those of many hospital systems, said scholars who study health care finance. The decision to wipe out liens that can drain home equity years after a...WW…

This story also ran on .In a business driven by profit, vaccines have a problem. They’re not very profitable — at least not without government subsidies. Pharma companies favor expensive medicines that must be taken repeatedly and generate revenue for years or decades. Vaccines are often given only once or twice. In many parts of the world, established vaccines cost a few dollars per dose or less.Last year only four companies were making vaccines for the U.S. market, down from more than 20 in the 1970s. As recently as Feb. 11, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease...…This story also ran on .In a business driven by profit, vaccines have a problem. They’re not very profitable — at least not without government subsidies. Pharma companies favor expensive medicines that must be taken repeatedly and generate revenue for years or decades. Vaccines are often given only once or twice. In many parts of the world, established vaccines cost a few dollars per dose or less.Last year only four companies were making vaccines for the U.S. market, down from more than 20 in the 1970s. As recently as Feb. 11, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease...WW…

It can beMasks imitating the real thing are flooding U.S. ports, and authorities can hardly keep pace.A key U.S. senator is calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate N95 mask fraud and federal agents announced the seizure of 1.7 million more counterfeit 3M masks in the New York borough of Queens as the breadth of a major scam concerning front-line health workers continues to grow.Early Thursday, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), on her first day as chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, said she would ask the Federal Trade Commission to look into 1.9 million counterfeits shipped...…It can beMasks imitating the real thing are flooding U.S. ports, and authorities can hardly keep pace.A key U.S. senator is calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate N95 mask fraud and federal agents announced the seizure of 1.7 million more counterfeit 3M masks in the New York borough of Queens as the breadth of a major scam concerning front-line health workers continues to grow.Early Thursday, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), on her first day as chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, said she would ask the Federal Trade Commission to look into 1.9 million counterfeits shipped...WW…

Noticias en español es una sección de Kaiser Health News que contiene traducciones de artículos de gran interés para la comunidad hispanohablante, y contenido original enfocado en la población hispana que vive en los Estados Unidos.Este contenido puede usarse de manera gratuita ().Miles de estadounidenses están muriendo a causa de covid-19, pero los esfuerzos para aumentar la producción de vacunas que potencialmente salvan vidas están en un callejón sin salida.Moderna y Pfizer-BioNTech, los fabricantes de las dos vacunas disponibles hasta el momento, están operando al máximo, bajo una...…Noticias en español es una sección de Kaiser Health News que contiene traducciones de artículos de gran interés para la comunidad hispanohablante, y contenido original enfocado en la población hispana que vive en los Estados Unidos.Este contenido puede usarse de manera gratuita ().Miles de estadounidenses están muriendo a causa de covid-19, pero los esfuerzos para aumentar la producción de vacunas que potencialmente salvan vidas están en un callejón sin salida.Moderna y Pfizer-BioNTech, los fabricantes de las dos vacunas disponibles hasta el momento, están operando al máximo, bajo una...WW…

This story also ran on . It can beAmericans are dying of covid-19 by the thousands, but efforts to ramp up production of potentially lifesaving vaccines are hitting a brick wall.Vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are running their factories full tilt and are under enormous pressure to expand production or collaborate with other drug companies to set up additional assembly lines. That pressure is only growing as new viral variants of the virus threaten to launch the country into a deadlier phase of the pandemic.President Joe Biden has said he plans to invoke the Cold War-era...…This story also ran on . It can beAmericans are dying of covid-19 by the thousands, but efforts to ramp up production of potentially lifesaving vaccines are hitting a brick wall.Vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are running their factories full tilt and are under enormous pressure to expand production or collaborate with other drug companies to set up additional assembly lines. That pressure is only growing as new viral variants of the virus threaten to launch the country into a deadlier phase of the pandemic.President Joe Biden has said he plans to invoke the Cold War-era...WW…