Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Japan finds another Moderna vial suspected to contain foreign substance

Japan’s Kanagawa prefecture said it has found another vial of Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine suspected of containing a foreign substance and has put the rest of the lot on hold. In a statement on Tuesday, prefectural authorities said a pharmacist found several black particles in one vial upon checking for foreign substances before the vaccine’s use.

New Zealanders venture out as COVID-19 curbs eased in most regions

New Zealanders on Wednesday visited beaches and queued for takeaway food as tough lockdown measures enforced to beat an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus were eased for most of the country. About 1.7 million people in the largest city Auckland still remain in strict level 4 lockdown for another two weeks, but restrictions for the remainder of the country were loosened.

Ireland to drop almost all COVID-19 restrictions in October

Ireland, which had one of Europe’s longest COVID-19 lockdowns, will drop almost all pandemic restrictions in October after one of the continent’s most successful vaccine rollouts, Prime Minister Micheal Martin said on Tuesday. From Oct. 22, the requirement for vaccine certificates in bars and restaurants will be dropped, as will all restrictions on the numbers attending indoor and outdoor events.

Novartis signs deal with Britain’s NHS for new cholesterol drug Leqvio

Novartis AG said on Wednesday it had agreed a deal with Britain’s healthcare service provider for use of the drugmaker’s new anti-cholesterol drug Leqvio, after the country’s healthcare cost agency NICE approved the medicine. The agreement, whose value was not disclosed, will help with wide access to the Swiss drugmaker’s medicine through Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) for people at risk of heart disease and for whom conventional treatment has not worked.

Melbourne drops COVID-zero plans, shifts focus to rapid vaccinations

Australian authorities on Wednesday extended the COVID-19 lockdown in Melbourne for another three weeks, as they shift their focus to rapid vaccination drives and move away from a suppression strategy to bring cases down to zero. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews flagged a staggered easing of the tough restrictions once 70% of the state’s adult residents receive at least one dose, a milestone he hopes to reach at least by Sept. 23, based on current vaccination rates.

S.Korea says secures 1.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Romania

South Korea has secured 1.5 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines from Romania, the health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

Idaho reactivates National Guard to help with rising coronavirus cases

Idaho Governor Brad Little said on Tuesday he was reactivating the National Guard and directing up to 370 additional people to help hospitals as they were overwhelmed with unvaccinated COVID-19 patients. There were only four intensive care unit beds available Tuesday in the entire state, out of nearly 400, the governor said in a statement.

Pennsylvania governor issues mask mandate for schools, child care facilities

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf on Tuesday issued a mask mandate for all K-12 school and child care facilities to protect against the spread of COVID-19, three weeks after the Democrat said he would leave the decision to individual districts. The order, which goes into effect Sept. 7, comes amid a surge in COVID-19 cases due to the highly-contagious Delta variant of the virus.

Walmart says ready to administer millions of COVID-19 vaccine boosters

Walmart Inc on Tuesday became the latest U.S. retailer to say that it is ready to administer millions of COVID-19 booster vaccine doses this fall if U.S. health officials endorse such a shot to improve fading immunity against the coronavirus. Rivals CVS Health Corp and Kroger Co earlier this month had announced plans to make booster shots available at their stores, pending regulatory guidance.

No evidence that Ivory Coast patient had Ebola, says WHO

New testing has found no evidence that the woman in Ivory Coast who tested positive earlier this month for Ebola actually had the virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. “WHO considers that the patient did not have Ebola virus disease and further analysis on the cause of her illness is ongoing,” it said in a statement.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

New Zealand reports 21 new local COVID-19 cases as outbreak grows

New Zealand recorded 21 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, as the current community outbreak of the highly transmissible Delta variant continues to grow, bringing infections associated with the outbreak to 72, health officials said. Of the 21 new cases, 20 are in Auckland, the largest city, and one is in the capital Wellington. Five people were in the hospital, but no one was in an intensive care unit.

Australian PM Morrison defends lockdown strategy as daily cases hit record

Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended on Sunday Australia’s lockdown strategy for tackling the coronavirus, saying it would stay until at least 70% of the population is fully vaccinated, as daily infections break records. Sunday’s 914 cases of the highly infectious Delta variant surpassed the previous high of 894 a day earlier.

Florida Board of Education gives school districts ultimatum on masks

The Florida Board of Education on Friday told two school districts they would have some of their state funding withheld if they failed within the next 48 hours to provide parents with a way to opt-out of a requirement that their children wear masks. School boards in Broward and Alachua counties have mandated masks in schools in defiance of an executive order issued last month by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that barred local officials from imposing mask mandates.

U.S. CDC asks travelers at high risk of severe COVID-19 to avoid cruises

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday people at an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 should avoid travel on cruise ships, including river cruises, irrespective of their vaccination status. Older adults and people with medical conditions are more likely to get severely ill from the disease and should take professional advice before cruise ship travel, the agency said.

UK to begin offering COVID antibody testing to the general public for the first time -media

The United Kingdom will begin offering COVID-19 antibody testing to the general public in the coming week for the first time, British media reported on Sunday. The government’s new program is intended to produce data on antibody protections for people the following infection by different coronavirus variants, according to details of the program published by multiple media outlets, including Sky News and BBC.

U.S. transportation agency requires face masks on planes, trains, buses through Jan 18

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration on Friday extended its requirements that people wear face masks on planes, buses, and trains, as well as in airports, through Jan. 18.

Moderna mandates COVID-19 vaccination for U.S. employees

Moderna Inc said on Friday it will require COVID-19 vaccination for all its employees in the United States from October. Rival coronavirus vaccine maker Pfizer Inc had earlier this month had mandated its U.S. employees and contractors to become vaccinated against COVID-19 or participate in weekly COVID-19 testing.

U.S. FDA aims to give full approval to Pfizer vaccine on Monday -NYT

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is aiming to give full approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, the New York Times reported https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/20/us/politics/fda-pfizer-covid-vaccine-full-approval.html on Friday. Regulators were aiming to complete the process by Friday, but we’re still working through “a substantial amount of paperwork and negotiation with the company,” the Times said, citing people familiar with the planning who was not authorized to speak publicly about it.

U.S. administers 361.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines -CDC

The United States has administered 361,684,564 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Saturday morning and distributed 428,506,065 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday. Those figures are up from the 360,634,287 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Friday out of 426,106,115 doses delivered.

Shanghai places hundreds in quarantine after airport COVID-19 cases

Authorities in Shanghai have quarantined hundreds of people in an attempt to halt a fresh COVID-19 outbreak in the city after infections were detected in cargo workers at its airport, the municipal government said on Saturday. Some 120 people deemed close contacts of the infected five workers at Pudong Airport were placed into quarantine, along with hundreds of others deemed secondary contacts.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Monroe County Schools announced new COVID-19 safety precautions Tuesday night, requiring face masks for students and staff “in school settings” for the next 30 days. By the following evening, the Monroe County school board had amended those restrictions, opting instead to encourage, but not mandate, masks. Masks are required on school buses, and the district is providing vaccination opportunities for students and staffers who want to get a coronavirus vaccine.

Read the full article:
Macon Telegraph

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By Elisabeth Rosenthal and Glenn Kramon, Kaiser Health News

America’s COVID-19 vaccination rate is around 60% for ages 12 and up. That’s not enough to reach so-called herd immunity, and in states like Missouri — where a number of counties have vaccination rates under 25% — hospitals are overwhelmed by serious outbreaks of the more contagious delta variant.

The vaccine resisters offer all kinds of reasons for refusing the free shots and for ignoring efforts to nudge them to get inoculated. Campaigns urging Americans to get vaccinated for their health, for their grandparents, for their neighbors, or to get free doughnuts or a free joint haven’t done the trick. States have even held lotteries with a chance to win millions or a college scholarship.

And yet there are still huge numbers of unvaccinated people. Federal, state and municipal governments as well as private businesses continue to largely avoid mandates for their employees out of fears they will provoke a backlash.

So, how about an economic argument? Get a COVID shot to protect your wallet.

Getting hospitalized with COVID in the United States typically generates huge bills. Those submitted by COVID patients to the NPR-Kaiser Health News “Bill of the Month” project include a $17,000 bill for a brief hospital stay in Marietta, Georgia (reduced to about $4,000 for an uninsured patient under a “charity care” policy); a $104,000 bill for a 14-day hospitalization in Miami for an uninsured man; and a bill for possibly hundreds of thousands for a two-week hospital stay — some of it on a ventilator — for a foreign tourist in Hawaii whose travel health insurance contained a “pandemic exclusion.”

Even though insurance companies negotiate lower prices and cover much of the cost of care, an over $1,000 out-of-pocket bill for a deductible — plus more for copays and possibly some out-of-network care — should be a pretty scary incentive.

In 2020, before COVID vaccines, most major private insurers waived patient payments — from coinsurance to deductibles — for COVID treatment. But many if not most have allowed that policy to lapse. Aetna, for example, ended that policy Feb. 28; UnitedHealthcare began rolling back its waivers late last year and ended them by the end of March.

More than 97% of hospitalized patients last month were unvaccinated. Though the vaccines will not necessarily prevent you from catching the coronavirus, they are highly effective at assuring you will have a milder case and are kept out of the hospital.

For this reason, there’s logic behind insurers’ waiver rollback: Why should patients be kept financially unharmed from what is now a preventable hospitalization, thanks to a vaccine that the government paid for and made available free of charge? It is now in many drugstores, it’s popping up at highway rest stops and bus stops, and it can be delivered and administered at home in parts of the country.

A harsher society might impose tough penalties on people who refuse vaccinations and contract the virus. Recently, the National Football League decreed that teams will forfeit a game canceled because of a COVID outbreak among unvaccinated players — and neither team’s players will be paid.

But insurers could try to do more, like penalizing the unvaccinated. And there is precedent. Already, some policies won’t cover treatment necessitated by what insurance companies deem risky behavior, such as scuba diving and rock climbing.

The Affordable Care Act allows insurers to charge smokers up to 50% more than what nonsmokers pay for some health plans. Four-fifths of states follow that protocol, though most employer-based plans do not do so. In 49 states, people caught driving without auto insurance face fines, confiscation of their car, loss of their license and even jail. And reckless drivers pay more for insurance.

The logic behind the policies is that the offenders’ behavior can hurt others and costs society a lot of money. If a person decides not to get vaccinated and contracts a bad case of COVID, they are not only exposing others in their workplace or neighborhoods; the tens or hundreds of thousands spent on their care could mean higher premiums for others as well in their insurance plans next year. What’s more, outbreaks in low-vaccination regions could help breed more vaccine-resistant variants that affect everyone.

Yes, we often cover people whose habits may have contributed to their illness — insurance regularly pays for drug and alcohol rehab and cancer treatment for smokers.

That’s one reason, perhaps, that insurers too have so far favored carrots, not sticks, to get people vaccinated. Some private insurers are offering people who get vaccinated a credit toward their medical premiums, or gift cards and sweepstakes prizes, according to America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry organization.

Tough love might be easier if the Food and Drug Administration gives vaccines full approval, rather than the current emergency use authorization. Even so, taxpayer-financed plans like Medicaid and Medicare must treat everyone the same and would encounter a lengthy process to secure federal waivers to experiment with incentives, according to Larry Levitt, executive vice president of KFF, a nonprofit focusing on health issues. (Kaiser Health News, where Rosenthal is editor-in-chief, is one program under KFF.) These programs cannot charge different rates to different patients in a state.

KFF polling shows such incentives are of limited value, anyway. Many holdouts say they will be vaccinated only if required to do so by their employers.

But what if the financial cost of not getting vaccinated were just too high? If patients thought about the price they might need to pay for their own care, maybe they would reconsider remaining unprotected.

This column first ran in Kaiser Health News and you can read it here. KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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The Senate has set the stage for a busy fall that will include debate on a broad array of health issues, such as prescription drug prices, Medicare expansion and further expansion of the Affordable Care Act. Before leaving for a delayed August break, the chamber passed a bipartisan infrastructure bill and budget resolution with an outline of a $3.5 trillion measure to be crafted when lawmakers return. Whether any of those health issues can make it across the legislative finish line remains to be seen, and the path to success is a narrow one.

Meanwhile, covid’s delta variant is spreading rapidly around the U.S., particularly in states with large swaths of unvaccinated people. And the spike is happening just as schools around the country are opening, with children under 12 still unvaccinated.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Mary Ellen McIntire of CQ Roll Call and Yasmeen Abutaleb of The Washington Post.

Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:

• One funding mechanism senators used to pay for the bipartisan infrastructure bill was a temporary rollback of a Trump administration rule on prescription drug pricing designed to take money from the drug industry middlemen who broker prices for insurers and give consumers a discount. The rule has not yet been implemented, but federal auditors determined it would drive up insurance premiums and cost the government money. So, by rolling the rule back, senators say they are saving the government billions of dollars that they would now spend on bridges, mass transit and other projects.
• After the Senate passed its infrastructure bill this week, it moved immediately to pass a budget resolution that could give Democrats just about everything on their social agenda wish list, including an expansion of Medicare benefits, a lower eligibility age for Medicare, extension of the tax credits that fund premium subsidies for plans purchased on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces, an expansion of home health care, lower drug prices and coverage for low-income people who live in states that did not expand Medicaid to adults. But wishing and receiving are very different things, and most observers think many of these items will not make it into the final spending bills.
• The Senate’s budget resolution calls for those spending bills to be written and voted on by committees by Sept. 15. That seems highly unlikely.
• President Joe Biden on Thursday reiterated his concerns about the high cost of prescription drugs. That is a potent political issue: Drug expenses generate a lot of consumer concerns, yet efforts to lower prices have run into trouble before on Capitol Hill because of drugmakers’ influence. Despite Biden’s speech, the White House has not shown any indication it is willing to expend serious political capital in trying to get a Medicare drug-pricing proposal through Congress.
• Concerns about the effects of the delta variant on children has the potential to shake up current politics. Southern governors, especially Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas, have vowed to oppose any mandates on masks or covid vaccines. But some school districts in their states are defying the governors, saying they need masks to help keep kids — many of whom can’t be vaccinated because of their age — safe. The issue will likely play out in the courts.
• While big-name employers are delaying the date for workers to return to the office, schools appear set to resume classes on time. Parents, doctors and educators have said that children need to be back in school and that last year’s widespread lockdowns were harmful, but the delta variant is causing concerns. It appears to be a bigger threat to students than last year’s version of the covid virus.
• Vaccine mandates are still a hot topic, too. A Florida court said this week that DeSantis could not stop a cruise line from requiring that passengers be vaccinated. More employers are also requiring workers to get a shot before coming back to work. And as places like restaurants, theaters and gyms set vaccine requirements, people who have been reluctant to be inoculated might feel pressured to get a shot.

Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too:

Julie Rovner: The Washington Post’s “Covid Killed Her Husband. Now It’s Taking the Only Home Her Kids Have Ever Known,” by William Wan

Joanne Kenen: Stat’s “A Snort or a Jab? Scientists Debate Potential Benefits of Intranasal Covid-19 Vaccines,” by Helen Branswell

Mary Ellen McIntire: Journal of the American Medical Association’s “Gun Violence Researchers Are Making Up for 20 Years of Lost Time,” by Alicia Ault

Yasmeen Abutaleb: The Atlantic’s “The Vaccine Cards Are the Wrong Size,” by Amanda Mull

To hear all our podcasts, click here.

And subscribe to KHN’s What the Health? on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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WEDNESDAY, Aug. 11, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Subjective (perceived) social status (SSS) is associated with overall cardiovascular health (CVH) among Hispanic/Latino adults, according to a study published online Aug. 11 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Lissette M. Piedra, Ph.D., from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and colleagues analyzed baseline Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos data for 15,374 Hispanic/Latino adults aged 18 to 74 years in 2008 to 2011. SSS was assessed using a 10-rung “social ladder” scale. Cross-sectional associations of SSS with CVH, based on levels of seven metrics overall and separately, were examined after adjustment for objective social status, demographic, and health factors.

The researchers found that 46 percent of the population had ideal scores in four or more metrics of CVH. An increase in SSS was associated with a higher overall CVH score in multivariable-adjusted models (ß = 0.04) as well as an increased likelihood of ideal levels of body mass index, physical activity, and fasting blood glucose levels. The association between SSS and ideal smoking was modified by nativity and time in the United States.

“When evaluating an individual’s cardiovascular health, we should consider their subjective experience. Clinicians could ask patients how they see themselves, and then ideally, we might have interventions that may help to elevate their sense of autonomy and self-perceived social status,” Piedra said in a statement. “As our findings indicate, subjective social status could provide especially important insights into the cardiovascular health of Hispanic/Latino people.”

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Home » News » Home Care Daily News

A study by the Department of Health and Human Services found that roughly 60% of seniors who died from COVID-19 during an eight-month period lived in settings outside of nursing homes, according to a report from Kaiser Health News. The term excess death refers to a higher death count than the number expected based on historical data.

The report also found that the death rate among Medicare enrollees with dementia was more than twice as high as those who hadn’t been infected by the virus.

At the end of last week, the COVID-19 pandemic had claimed the lives of 612,000 Americans. More than three-quarters of those victims were over the age of 65. Still, seniors account for the highest vaccinated cohort of Americans. More than 80% have been fully vaccinated and more than 90% have gotten at least one shot.

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Gov. Brian Kemp Friday defended his decision not to impose mask-wearing or vaccination mandates on Georgians to stem the latest surge in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths. “I don’t believe we need to have a dictatorship in government telling what local school systems need to do, what private businesses need to do, what nonprofits need to do, or what individuals should do,” Kemp said during an appearance at Ball Ground Elementary School in Cherokee County.

Read the full article:
Capitol Beat News Service 

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