The Crisis Is Officially Ending, but Covid Confusion Lives On

The Host

The formal finish Could 11 of the nationwide public well being emergency for covid-19 will usher in a lot of modifications in the best way People get vaccines, therapy, and testing for the coronavirus. It would additionally change the best way some individuals get their medical insurance, with thousands and thousands more likely to lose protection altogether.

In the meantime, two FDA advisory committees voted unanimously this week to permit the over-the-counter sale of a selected contraception capsule. Advocates of constructing the capsule simpler to get say it may take away important limitations to using efficient contraception and stop 1000’s of unplanned pregnancies yearly. The FDA, nevertheless, should nonetheless formally approve the change, and a few of its workers scientists have expressed issues about whether or not youngsters and low-literacy adults will be capable to observe the instructions with out the direct involvement of a medical skilled.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Well being Information, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg College of Public Well being and Politico, Tami Luhby of CNN, and Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Occasions.

Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:

• The formal public well being emergency could also be over, however covid undoubtedly will not be. Greater than 1,000 individuals in the US died of the virus between April 19 and April 26, in response to the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. Whereas most People have put covid of their rearview mirrors, it stays a threat across the nation.
• The Senate Finance Committee held a listening to on “ghost networks,” lists of well being professionals distributed by insurance coverage corporations who should not taking new sufferers or should not really within the insurance coverage firm’s community. Ghost networks are a specific downside in psychological well being care, the place few suppliers take medical insurance in any respect.
• One other development within the enterprise of well being care is main care practices being purchased by hospitals, insurance coverage corporations, and even Amazon. This technique was standard within the Nineteen Nineties, as well being techniques sought to “vertically combine.” However now the bigger entities might produce other causes for having their very own networks of medical doctors, together with utilizing their sufferers to create income streams.
• Courtroom battles proceed over the destiny of the abortion capsule mifepristone, as a federal appeals courtroom in New Orleans prepares to listen to arguments a few lower-court decide’s ruling that may successfully cancel the drug’s approval by the FDA. In West Virginia, the maker of the generic model of the drug is difficult the precise of the state to ban treatment accepted by federal officers. On the identical time, a gaggle of impartial abortion clinics from numerous states is suing the FDA to drop restrictions on how mifepristone will be prescribed, becoming a member of largely Democratic-led states looking for to make sure entry to the drug.

Plus for “further credit score” the panelists counsel well being coverage tales they learn this week that they suppose it is best to learn, too:

Julie Rovner: Slate’s “Not Each Man Will Be as Dumb as Marcus Silva,” by Moira Donegan and Mark Joseph Stern.

Joanne Kenen: The Baltimore Banner’s “Baltimore Isn’t Accessible for Folks With Disabilities. Fixing It Would Value Over $650 Million,” by Hallie Miller and Adam Willis.

Tami Luhby: CNN’s “Due to Florida Abortion Legal guidelines, She Carried Her Child to Time period Understanding He Would Die,” by Elizabeth Cohen, Carma Hassan, and Amanda Musa.

Margot Sanger-Katz: The New Yorker’s “The Drawback With Deliberate Parenthood,” by Eyal Press.

Additionally talked about on this week’s episode:

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