Tag: COVID-19

WASHINGTON — July 26 Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough announced he will make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for Title 38 VA health care personnel — including physicians, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists, registered nurses, physician assistants, expanded-function dental auxiliaries and chiropractors — who work in Veterans Health Administration facilities, visit VHA facilities or provide direct care to those VA serves.

Overdose fatalities rose in 2020, with Black people at high risk The isolation, anxiety, and stress of the pandemic has pushed the opioid epidemic to a record-breaking death toll. According to the latest CDC data, drug overdose fatalities rose by almost 30% in 2020, to 93,000 deaths. Opioids such as fentanyl are driving the greatest rise in deaths among Black Americans, while methamphetamine overdoses are more common in American Indians and Alaska Natives than other groups, reports Abby Goodnough for The New York Times.

This newspaper recently reported that 12 members of the state Legislature refused, when asked by The Times, to disclose their vaccination status.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing actions to address the health equity gap, ensure consumers have the information they need to make fully informed decisions regarding their health care, improve emergency care access in rural communities, and use lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to inform patient care and quality measurements.

How many pandemics have there been throughout history? How long did they last? How deadly has the COVID-19 pandemic been compared to the pandemics that came before it? Should we be expecting another pandemic within our lifetimes?