Author: Scott Welch
Omicron appears to cause less severe illness than earlier variants of the coronavirus but is more resistant to the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine widely used in South Africa, according to the first major private study since omicron was first detected last month. The study by Discovery Health, South Africa’s largest health insurer, of 211,000 positive coronavirus cases, of which 78,000 ...
Almost one-third of Americans skipped necessary medical care in the past three months because they could not afford it, according to a poll released Tuesday. The survey from the West Health Policy Center and Gallup found that 30 percent of participants said they opted out of health care due to the cost — a percentage that tripled from ...
The Senate passed legislation late Thursday that delays nearly 10% in Medicare cuts set to take effect next year, giving providers a major boost. The Senate passed the bill by 59 to 35 on Thursday, sending the legislation to President Biden after a successful House vote earlier this week. The bill included a provision to ...
For years, drugmakers have targeted “weaknesses” in the U.S. healthcare system to reap dividends on older meds, The House Oversight Committee said Friday. The “outrageous prices” and “anticompetitive conduct” that dictate the market make a strong case for the passing of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act, which would allow Medicare to petition for ...
Influenza virus detections are rising in the U.S., according to health officials. In a weekly influenza surveillance report ending on Dec. 4, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that while influenza activity remains low nationally, it continues to increase. “The number of influenza viruses detected by clinical and public health labs has increased in recent ...
Fitness trackers from companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google are making a significant shift from being low-tech devices that counted steps to now becoming what’s fashionable in personal health. Tracking fitness and workout data for personal use or sharing with friends can be useful and fun. But there’s an increasing interest in incorporating a wider range of medical data ...
California’s statewide mask mandate goes into effect Wednesday. For those in the Golden State, this means everyone, vaccinated and unvaccinated, must wear a face covering in indoor public spaces — for the most part.
The U.S. government will not reimburse private health insurance companies for covering the cost of at-home COVID-19 tests, a White House official said on Thursday.
Three major issues will determine the magnitude of the impact of the new Omicron variant of the Covid virus will have on the nation and the rest of the planet. What is the transmissibility of this new Covid variant? How good is it at evading the antibodies and T-cells that make up a person’s immune defences?
Lobbyists for drugmakers, pharmacists and large employers are blanketing Congress with calls, emails and advertisements, pressing lawmakers to rein in pharmaceutical middlemen, who they say are behind soaring drug costs.