Pandemic already spurring major changes in health care system.
“In a place like Canada, every single hospital is getting ready,” Aggarwal told the Financial Post in an interview. “Whether you’re remote or small, or you’re a mid-sized community hospital, you’re getting ready.”
Walmart said in a news release that it will start implementing new health and safety procedures with its employees due to coronavirus (COVID-19) concerns.
Officials said the company has decided to “begin taking the temperature” of employees when they come work and will ask them some health screening questions as well.
Nearly every U.S. industry is struggling with the effects of the pandemic. Only one has a shot at stopping the virus itself.
Over the past decade, biotechnology firms and pharmaceutical companies have stockpiled an armament of scientists, laboratories, and capital in the billions of dollars. Those labs could end the current global nightmare of Covid-19.
Are they doing enough?
Now, after a slow start, there are nearly 60 programs under way to develop a Covid-19 treatment and more than 40 to develop a vaccine, by both commercial and noncommercial labs, according to an accounting by the Milken Institute.
Doctors from weigh in on the shortage of testing supplies, the effects on patient care and the pros and cons of widespread testing. “Once the rapid tests come out and are available widely, and the results can be done in a couple of hours, that will be a game changer,” — David Damsker, director of Bucks County Health Department.
Dr. Keith Sadel knows people want tests for coronavirus.
Dozens of calls flood into his Upper Southampton medical practice daily, and through a virtual “telehealth” procedure, he determines whether to write prescriptions for tests that he knows are in short supply. Some, however, want to bypass the protocol.
With visitors banned, family members are in a panic: Who will feed their parents? Who will change the sheets?
For five years, twin sisters in Brooklyn have visited their 105-year-old mother every night in her nursing home, bringing dinner and feeding her, overseeing her medications. That stopped two weeks ago, when nursing homes barred visitors to keep out the coronavirus. Now the sisters have no idea what condition their mother is in or whether anyone is taking care of her.
“We don’t know how she’s going to survive this,” said Gerry Baker, one of the sisters. “When we couldn’t see her, it felt as if my mom had transitioned and we were waiting to have the funeral.”
Displaced college students and faculty members look to each other for support and understanding at a time of anxiety and uncertainty.
As college students and faculty members face an onslaught of stressors related to the disruptions in their lives caused by the coronavirus pandemic, they are relying on each other for connection and coping strategies to help ease the weight of the public health crisis on their mental health.
While administrators and other employees are undoubtedly also affected by the dramatic departure of people from college and university campuses across the country, the upheaval has been most felt by students and faculty members who interacted more frequently and consistently — and had more symbiotic relationships — than others on campus.
At the Ocular Wellness and Nutrition Society,1 we teach our members how to build a firewall of immune protection for patients, eyecare providers, and their families.
Humans have lived and survived severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS, 2004), avian flu (2008), swine flu (2010), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS, 2012), Ebola (2014), Zika (2016), and Ebola part deux (2018). Now COVID-19 is the new challenge.
Each flu season, tens of thousands die, especially those with pre-existing health challenges (smoking, obesity, diabetes, cancer, and more.) Yet as of this writing, we have seen only 302 U.S. coronavirus deaths.
At least two health care workers have been fired after speaking out about the need for more coronavirus tests and protective equipment as hospitals across the country warn doctors and nurses not to publicize pandemic-fueled shortages of medical supplies.
An emergency room doctor in Washington state was fired last week after criticizing working conditions at his hospital where he had worked for 17 years, and a Chicago nurse was fired after warning colleagues their assigned masks offered inadequate protection against coronavirus, according to reports.
“Nurses and other health care workers are being muzzled in an attempt by hospitals to preserve their image,” said Ruth Schubert, a spokesperson for the Washington State Nurses Association. “No health care worker should face being disciplined or fired for speaking the truth.”
If you find yourself out of a job due the coronavirus crisis, money may be tight, but it’s especially important now to try to make sure you have health insurance.
There are different rules that apply when it comes to maintaining health coverage, depending on whether you’re furloughed — let go temporarily — or you’re terminated through a layoff.
White House prepares to send direct payments to Americans as part of stimulus package.
Donald Trump has dramatically stepped up the US government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak by announcing plans to send cheques directly to American citizens to give them emergency financial aid, while agreeing to purchase up to $1tn (£830bn) of corporate bonds.
The White House said it was preparing to send the payments to Americans within two weeks as part of a vast stimulus package to shore-up confidence in the world’s largest economy as the efforts to contain the disease threaten a global recession.
