In March and April 2020, mental health claim lines for individuals aged 13-18, as a percentage of all medical claim lines, approximately doubled over the same months in the previous year. At the height of the spring wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, this rise in mental health claim lines amounted to 97.0 percent in March […]
Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. The number of new COVID-19 cases in children declined for the sixth consecutive week, but the drop was the smallest yet, according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. New child cases in […]
Ask Eric Weaver about pandemics, and he's quick to remind you of a fact that illustrates the fleeting nature of human memory and the proximal nature of human attention: The first pandemic of the 21st century struck not in 2019, but 2009. That's when the H1N1/09 swine flu emerged, eventually infecting upwards of 1.4 billion […]
Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. A mask required sign is displayed on the entrance to a business in Dallas. AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas is lifting its mask mandate, Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday, making it the largest state to end an order intended to prevent […]
Pharmaceutical competitors Merk & Co and Johnson & Johnson are teaming up in the fight against COVID-19. According to reports, President Joe Biden is scheduled to announce on Tuesday that Merk will be helping Johnson & Johnson manufacture its COVID-19 vaccine after failing to develop its own, both The Washington Post and The New York […]
Prior to the emergence of new mutants of the coronavirus, such as the British variant B.1.1.7, the SARS-CoV-2 variant named D614G had already mutated from the original SARS-CoV-2 pathogen that triggered the pandemic. D614G has rapidly spread to become the most abundant variant worldwide and this D614G mutation remains in all the new emerging variants. […]
Feb. 26, 2021 — After several weeks of declining, COVID-19 numbers are back on the rise and new variants continue to emerge, according to White House officials — just as states begin to lift restrictions and open doors to restaurants and businesses. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, reported during a Friday COVID-19 briefing that coronavirus cases and […]
Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. When the U.S. coronavirus vaccination program began in December, residents and employees of long-term care facilities were put at the top of the priority list. That made sense, since those facilities accounted for more than one-third of all virus-related deaths while […]
More than one third of adults aged 18-64 years in the United States delayed or went without medical care because of efforts by patients or providers to reduce the spread of COVID-19, according to a new report from the Urban Institute. Among the adults who postponed or missed care, 32.6% said the gap worsened one […]
A modeling study suggests a majority of adult COVID-19 hospitalizations nationwide are attributable to at least one of four pre-existing conditions: obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and heart failure, in that order. The study, published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA) and led by researchers at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman […]
