When cases of COVID-19 began rising in Boston last spring, Pooja Chandrashekar, then a first year student at Harvard Medical School, worried that easy-to-understand information about the pandemic might not be available in the many languages spoken by clients of the Family Van, the health services and health literacy program where she was working at the time.
Patients need support for mental and physical health all in one place
On the eve of reentry, we must sift through the rubble and start an honest conversation about health. What does it mean to be healthy? Where are our patients currently turning for help? How can we reimagine healthcare to meet both the mental and physical health needs of our patients?
Much of our focus over the past year has rightly been on the widespread failures related to the pandemic. But we’ve taken for granted just how flexible the American health-care system showed it can be in a crisis. Before the coronavirus, doctors, patients and policymakers had largely grown cynical about the prospect of bringing real changes to the front lines of care. But over the last year, we finally learned that the right role for innovation and technology should simply be to increase the care in health care.
The White House and CDC are looking to help states better incorporate primary care into their COVID-19 vaccination strategy. They have launched a three-pronged effort that includes:
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra recently renewed the country’s public health emergency that was set to expire April 21. The declaration extends the PHE another 90 days through July 21, 2021. The COVID-19-related emergency was first declared on January 27, 2020. It allows for a number of flexibilities for how and by whom health care may be delivered.
COVID-19 continues to take a disproportionate toll on communities of color. A recent study found that Black women are three times more likely than White men to die from COVID-19.
Maryland one of few states with a distribution program
Even as the supply of COVID-19 vaccines continues to increase, many doctors clamoring to distribute the vaccine directly to their patients are finding their requests go unheeded, experts say.
Results of an Aetna Mental Health Pulse Survey conducted in late January 2021
The country may be at a mental health breaking point.
COVID-19 has exacerbated mental health issues in the U.S. at an astonishing rate, with a swell of stress and anxiety that has consistently worsened since spring 2020. Aside from fear of catching and spreading the virus, extreme isolation from friends and family, mass job loss, an unstable economy, and widespread social and political tensions have all contributed to a mental health crisis in this country like no other.
Millions of Americans are still getting shots each day — but, in a jarring twist after months of scarcity, too many slots remain open as skeptics hold out.
The supply of Covid vaccines is now exceeding demand in rural areas and big cities, even as states lift remaining eligibility restrictions, open walk-in clinics and even offer shots to out-of-state residents.
It's a jarring twist after months during which vaccine-seekers crashed appointment websites seeking shots and stalked pharmacy counters hoping to snag leftover doses. And it’s a problem that state and federal officials are rushing to address withonly limited success...
