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Tribal leaders have worked to keep the coronavirus off their reservations because of its deadly impact on Native populations. But careful avoidance of the COVID virus has handcuffed the tribes as they face a devastating fire season.
As fires burn longer and closer to cities throughout the West, researchers are trying to understand the lasting health impacts by studying a Montana town previously smothered by wildfire smoke.
A KHN review found more than 20 states either don’t count or have incomplete data on the use of COVID-19 antigen tests, leaving the public in the dark about the true scope of the pandemic.
As people leave COVID-stricken cities to settle semi-permanently in vacation communities, locals assess how these new residents are changing demands on medical services.
Once there were 23 of these nonprofit plans across 26 states; in January there will be only three, serving Maine, Wisconsin, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
Voters in Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and several other conservative-leaning states will decide in November whether to legalize medical or recreational marijuana.
Efforts are underway to bring to market a vaccine for valley fever, a fungal infection with COVID-like symptoms that occurs in the deserts of the Southwest. The illness is getting more attention as cases rise and a warming climate threatens to spread it through the West.
Control of the U.S. Senate this election hinges on a handful of vulnerable GOP incumbents. Their opposition to the Affordable Care Act could be their undoing.
Thousands of firefighters from across the U.S. have converged on the West as the wildfire season enters its peak. The inherently dangerous job now carries the additional risk of COVID-19 transmission, and fire managers are adapting their plans for crowded fire camps in the hope of preventing outbreaks that could sideline crews and weaken the nation’s firefighting infrastructure.
The race between Steve Bullock and Steve Daines reflects a trend in campaigns nationwide. Republicans often paint Democrats as left of the general public and health care has often been one of the issues the GOP highlights in that effort. In this case, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is leaping to conclusions with its claims.
Many physicians were forced to close their offices — or at least see only emergency cases — when the pandemic struck. Because they are generally paid piecemeal for every service, they suffered big losses, leading to layoffs and pay cuts. Some doctors say they now are looking to overhaul the way they get paid.
Gov. Steve Bullock’s response to the pandemic has helped raise his profile as he challenges incumbent Republican Sen. Steve Daines. But it also complicates the campaign as the state sees a resurgence of COVID-19 cases and voters question some of the governor’s actions.
With COVID-19 tests bogged down in backlogs, some states that relied on private laboratories, such as Quest Diagnostics, are trying to adapt as caseloads rise.
Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes initially opposed the Wolf Point Wild Horse Stampede this year, worrying about hundreds of people coming to their reservation for the rodeo amid coronavirus concerns. But the annual event was on private land and went ahead, highlighting the reopening tensions between resuming normal economic activities and protecting the vulnerable.
Some of Montana’s Native American nations are holding firm on coronavirus protections even as the rest of Montana reopens. They’ve got more at stake, they say, in protecting their elders who preserve their endangered culture.
As an electron microscopist at the National Institutes of Health’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana, Elizabeth Fischer has captured stunning images of emerging pathogens such as Ebola, the MERS coronavirus and now SARS-CoV-2.
A rural Montana county of 5,000 people lays claim to the state's highest COVID-19 infection rate. The community risks additional spread, though, because of a private prison situated there. If the virus infiltrates the prison and just a fraction of inmates get sick, the area’s limited health resources may not endure.
The Indian Health Service hospital at Montana's Fort Belknap reservation has put out a call for applicants for two traditional practitioner positions, part of a new recognition of Native American ethnobotany expertise that was pushed underground for decades. The openings are already making waves in the state.
In one conservative pocket of Montana, a local health board member who opposes vaccinations helped fight the state’s stay-at-home rules. But now, as the state slowly reopens, she faces a backlash of her own.
Montana is one of several states that want Medicaid recipients to prove they work a steady, minimum number of hours monthly. Will federal courts allow the Montana rule change to stand?
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