Hospitals in Arizona are seeing an intense wave of new coronavirus cases, doctors at the Banner University Medical Center in Phoenix told ABC News on Monday, and it is filling up their intensive care units and pushing their nurses to the brink.
Dr. Jennifer O’Hea, a Banner ICU doctor overseeing 100 patients, said the situation “exploded” towards the end of May and has snowballed into a dire situation.
While testifying before the Senate in May, Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, warned of the consequences of U.S. states reopening too quickly by saying that “there is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you might not be able to control.” He added that a premature reopening “would not only lead to some suffering and death, but it could even set you back on the road to economic recovery”.
Daily new infections had supposedly peaked at 36,738 cases on April 24 and they gradually fell to 17,618 by May 11, with an end to the pandemic seemingly in sight. As the reopenings gathered pace, however, Fauci’s warnings appear to have been well-founded with the country experiencing an alarming resurgence in infections amid fears that it has indeed lost control of Covid-19. On June 26, the U.S reported 45,300 new daily infections.
You don’t have to draw attention to coronavirus ‘surcharges’. Just add a few cents to the price – that’s the cost of doing business.
Last month, a popular restaurant in Chicago drew attention after adding a 26% “Covid surcharge” to customers’ checks, in order to offset the rising costs of food supplies brought about by shortages and supply interruptions.
“We are just opening up, so we really need to be able to make ends meet,” the manager of Harold’s Chicken on Broadway insisted to a local TV station. “We’re actually trying to figure out how else we can make up for those losses that we’ve had so far.” Admirable reasons. And, for many small businesses, not an unpopular position.
A sustained resurgence in coronavirus infections should emerge this autumn in tandem with the arrival of flu season and bring with it more targeted lockdowns across the nation, Morgan Stanley warned clients.
The brokerage’s biotechnology analyst Matthew Harrison wrote that his base case scenario projects a “second wave” in the fall with daily new cases summing between 40,000 and 50,000 nationwide.
Investors often listen to Harrison in greater numbers for his success in predicting the course of the pandemic and government responses.
Our healthcare system has taught us to only protect our individual health–the health of our neighbor is not a concern. The problems we see during COVID-19 aren’t new but emblematic of a long-entrenched mentality about healthcare that pits people against each other to turn a profit.
When COVID-19 first hit America, it brought feelings of fear, uncertainty, and–perhaps strangely–of unity. Briefly in mid-March, the individualistic American mindset seemed suspended as we began to fight this global pandemic together.
Emma Baccellieri | Sports Illustrated: In late May, MLB composed a 67-page health and safety manual for playing the season under the threat of COVID-19. Since then, the manual has grown to 101 pages. Emma Baccellieri read the whole thing to see what changed so you don’t have to.
Jon Tayler | FanGraphs: Of all the rule changes coming in the shortened 2020 season, beginning extra innings with a runner on second is easily the least popular. With 60 games in less than 70 days, it makes sense to prohibit #WeirdBaseball, but rooting for less baseball comes with cognitive dissonance. How much less baseball will there be because of this rule? Jon Tayler has your answer.
The biohacker who injected himself with CRISPR is back. This time, he’s setting out to solve a problem at the forefront of everyone’s mind—the need for a COVID-19 vaccine—and he thinks he can beat biopharma to it.
Nevermind that companies like Moderna and AstraZeneca are racing vaccine candidates into and through the clinic at a speed never seen before, and the U.S. government has set up a Manhattan Project-style initiative aptly dubbed “Operation Warp Speed,” which aims to deliver 100 million doses of a viable COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year. That’s still too slow for Josiah Zayner.
Integrating continuous and trusted patient data from the home is the key to unlocking the transformative potential of virtual care.
With over 50% of Americans developing 2 or more chronic conditions by the year 2030, it is now more critical than ever for robust data acquisition from the patient’s home setting.
Traditional telehealth solutions just replicate “more of the same” inherent in the clinical setting. Over two-way video, clinicians ask patients for point-in-time readings or even manual data entry histories rather than using the precious time to proactively respond to patient needs. This approach often provides a distorted perspective that lacks contextual information and is not representative of a patient’s actual state. The phenomenon of “white coat hypertension” is a well known example of this.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment released guidance June 24 to allow outdoor visitation at senior homes and other care facilities.
“Isolation of individuals in nursing homes, group homes, assisted living communities and other congregate settings impose substantial physical and mental health consequences for these residents,” the state’s COVID-19 website said.
“Social distancing and use of electronic means of communication remain strongly recommended,” but the state decided to implement this guidance now because Colorado’s disease rates are low, the website and a news release said.
How to get over the stigma and talk to your doctors, plus what to do if you’re considering medication.
