On Disabilities

A hospital patient in Stamford, Conn., who has COVID-19 symptoms gets his temperature checked. Severe infections with the novel coronavirus have been unusually high among African Americans and Latinos in many hospitals.

Health & Safety

Opinion: U.S. Must Avoid Building Racial Bias Into COVID-19 Emergency Guidance

7:00am April 21, 2020

States are releasing "Crisis Standards of Care" guidelines, aimed at helping desperate hospitals discern how to allocate scarce resources. But the guidance doesn't factor in health care inequalities.

All 84 residents of Magnolia Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Riverside, Calif., were evacuated from the facility in early April after 39 residents tested positive for the coronavirus.

Health & Safety

Discharging COVID-19 Patients To Nursing Homes Called A 'Recipe For Disaster'

9:57am April 20, 2020

by Ina Jaffe

New York and New Jersey want nursing homes to accept recovering hospital patients, regardless of their COVID-19 status, to free up space in hospitals. What's to keep the virus from spreading?

Queue Listen Now

In 1989, Fauci and then-U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan (right) announced results of studies showing that the antiviral drug AZT had delayed the onset of disease in some people with HIV.

Long Before COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci 'Changed Medicine In America Forever'

5:33pm April 16, 2020

by Dave Davies

New Yorker writer Michael Specter covered Fauci's early work in the AIDS epidemic. "He's always taken an open-minded approach to the problems," Specter says of the infectious-disease expert.

Queue Listen Now

If one person in the household is sick with COVID-19, everyone else in the home should consider themselves as possibly having an asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic infection, even if they feel fine, doctors say.

Health & Safety

How To Stay Healthy When Your Child, Spouse Or Roommate Has COVID-19

5:00am April 16, 2020

by Maria Godoy

Sharing a home with someone who has COVID-19 raises your risk of catching the virus. But the sick person needs your support, as well as good hygiene skills. Try these "best practice" tips.

When Lex Frieden broke his hip, a Texas hospital decided against an operation. Frieden, a quadriplegic since 1967, would never walk, so the surgery wasn't necessary, the doctors reasoned, a decision that left him with lasting pain.

People With Disabilities Fear Pandemic Will Worsen Medical Biases

5:01am April 15, 2020

by Joseph Shapiro

As medical providers prepare for the possibility that they may have to ration care, many people with disabilities fear they will get lesser treatment.

Queue Listen Now

Former Vice President Joe Biden at a press conference in Wilmington, Del., in mid-March. His bid this week to allow 60-year-olds to get Medicare "reflects the reality," he says, "that, even after the current crisis ends, older Americans are likely to find

Biden's Health Play In A COVID-19 Economy: Lower Medicare's Eligibility Age To 60

5:00am April 11, 2020

by Julie Rovner

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden proposes letting 60-year-olds enroll in Medicare. He'd pay for the expansion out of general tax revenue, he says, not the Medicare fund.

Nurses check registration lists before testing patients for coronavirus at the University of Washington Medical Center on March 13 in Seattle.

People With Disabilities Say Rationing Care Policies Violate Civil Rights

9:27pm March 23, 2020

by Joseph Shapiro

People with disabilities are asking the federal government to stop state and hospital policies that they fear will ration care in favor of younger and healthier people.

As classes move online, many schools fear students with disabilities could be left behind, in violation of federal laws. The Education Department calls this reading of the law "a serious misunderstanding."

Education

Education Dept. Says Disability Laws Shouldn't Get In The Way Of Online Learning

1:44pm March 23, 2020

As classes move online, many schools fear students with disabilities could be left behind, in violation of federal laws. The department calls this reading of the law "a serious misunderstanding."

N95 respirator masks (left), and surgical masks are both critical for medical personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic, and already in short supply in some spots. Already, pharmacists are reusing surgical masks to conserve their supply.

Health & Safety

Mask Shortage Straps Pharmacists Who Need Them To Keep Medicines Pure

8:43am March 20, 2020

Fifteen percent of hospital pharmacists who prepare injectable drugs are going without the protective masks they typically rely on, or are using substitutes for the masks.

MedStar Washington Hospital Center's "ready room" in Washington, D.C., has mostly been used to house emergency supplies — but some storage carts have been moved out to make way for patient assessment stations.

Are U.S. Hospitals Ready?

2:16pm March 17, 2020

Here's what it will take for medical facilities across the nation to handle the coming surge of COVID-19 patients.