Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
To Battle Shortages, Maryland Lets Nursing Students Hit Hospitals Early
Seeking to ease a nursing shortage exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, the University of Maryland School of Nursing will allow nursing students to exit a bit early and begin working in the field. It’s the fourth time the school has approved such a move, which affects students scheduled to graduate Dec. 23. (Cohn, 11/21)
Michigan announced a new advisory on Friday, saying that all residents 2 years or older should wear a face mask at indoor gatherings regardless of vaccination status. The advisory comes as Michigan faces its highest surge of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began. The state hit its highest seven-day case rate in 2021 at 589.3 cases, the Detroit Free Press reports, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Frazier, 11/20)
Patients at high risk for developing severe COVID-19 can receive a monoclonal antibody treatment at home. Tampa-based DeliveRxd Pharmacy is offering the free homebound service in Citrus, Hardee, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Sarasota and Sumter counties. (Colombini, 11/21)
The coronavirus was spreading rapidly, workplaces were locked down, and Connecticut could barely turn around a virus test result in less than two weeks. It was April of 2020. The state was desperate for help from any laboratory that could process COVID tests quickly. Much of the laboratory space at Sema4, a Stamford-based healthcare technology startup, was sitting idle, its genomic data analysis business largely suspended by the pandemic. So Sema4 pivoted. (Altimari, Phillips and Golvala, 11/21)
In the bay outside the crowded emergency department of UMass Memorial Medical Center, the ambulances keep coming. Just inside the doors, a pair of paramedics wait with their patient, an elderly woman on a stretcher. Eventually, they take the patient to a room where a nurse checks on her. But many others are not so lucky. Sick and distressed, they lie in beds in the hallways, bright lights overhead, alarms beeping, doctors and nurses rushing past. There are more patients here than beds or medical staff to care for them. (Dayal McCluskey, 11/20)
The Harris County jail is expected to reach capacity during the holiday season, according to Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, and many inmates have declined the COVID-19 vaccine. Information about the jail population and COVID-19 status was included in a report filed Friday in federal court in connection with a 2019 civil rights lawsuit challenging Harris County’s bail practices. Gonzales is among the defendants. (Bauman, 11/21)
Rhode Island’s congressional delegation announced the new federal Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity grant. They say the current facility, commissioned in 1978, has insufficient laboratory space, inadequate building systems and broken equipment, and the state spends more than $500,000 annually to keep it working efficiently. The state health laboratories work to investigate and mitigate life-threatening diseases, including COVID-19, eastern equine encephalitis, Ebola, H1N1, and Zika. Last year, when commercial testing services weren’t yet widely available, the number of COVID-19 samples that could be tested was limited due to insufficient laboratory space, the delegation said. (11/21)
