Blackfeet Nation Challenges Montana Ban on Vaccine Mandates as Infringement on Sovereignty
The Montana tribe has entered a legal fight over whether the state has the right to enforce a prohibition of vaccine mandates on its reservation.
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The Montana tribe has entered a legal fight over whether the state has the right to enforce a prohibition of vaccine mandates on its reservation.
As the covid-19 pandemic raged, an independent nonprofit tied to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hired an army of seasoned professionals to fill the gaps in the country鈥檚 public health system. Now, the money has largely run out, and state and local health departments are again without their expertise.
In Nevada, local health officials are assessing the threat of monkeypox, but their response may be hampered by historically limited public health infrastructure worn thin by the covid-19 pandemic.
Colorado, Florida, and Idaho are the latest states to opt out of a survey that tracks concerning behaviors in high school students. Officials cite low participation and state laws that require parental permission. But some advocates say dwindling state participation is an 鈥渆normous loss鈥 that will make it harder to track signs of poor mental health 鈥 like drug and alcohol misuse and suicidal ideation 鈥 among teens.
PolitiFact has been tracking this campaign promise since 2020. Experts are now saying it's fair to describe the covid pandemic as "under control."
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here鈥檚 a collection of their appearances.
Because polio has been vanishingly rare in the United States for nearly a half-century, doctors may not consider it when diagnosing patients with typical symptoms. Here are the signs and the science behind an infectious disease that is largely a mystery to modern society.
The gay community is disproportionally affected by the monkeypox outbreak, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says public health efforts should prioritize gay and bisexual men. But in the South, some LGBTQ+ advocates fear that this is not happening consistently. They say they are having to take matters into their own hands in the absence of a coordinated response from state governments.
With fears of a winter surge looming, government agencies have authorized and encouraged vaccination with a newly formulated booster. But the science to support that decision remains inconclusive.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has tapped Mary Wakefield to help 鈥渞eset鈥 the agency after its public failures handling the covid pandemic. Those who know Wakefield say her high standards and problem-solving skills make her a good fit for the job.
Dashboards that rely on positive covid test results reported to local health departments no longer paint a reliable picture of how covid is spreading in an area. Some experts say wastewater surveillance is the most accurate way to measure viral activity. Meanwhile, some wastewater labs face funding shortfalls.
Public health officials and resettlement groups across the U.S. have used community organizers to encourage newly arrived refugees and other vulnerable people to get vaccinated against covid-19. In a Georgia city that is home to many refugees, the vaccination rate is higher than in the state, county, and surrounding communities of similar socioeconomic status.
President Joe Biden has signed the Inflation Reduction Act and Congress is gone until after Labor Day. But the administration and lawmakers left lots of health policy achievements behind, including new rules to facilitate the sale of over-the-counter hearing aids and a potential reorganization of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico join KHN鈥檚 Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also, for extra credit, the panelists suggest their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.
Los Angeles County is getting 60% fewer doses of monkeypox vaccine than officials expected, after the FDA said every vial could be split into five shots.
Wastewater testing has proved a reliable early alarm bell for covid outbreaks. U.S. researchers are now adapting the approach to track the explosive spread of monkeypox.
Black people and those with high levels of melanin in their skin have long been left out of efforts to combat skin cancer. Historically neglected both by sunscreen manufacturers and a medical community lagging in diversity and cultural competency, many people with dark skin tones have not been informed about sun safety or how to monitor their skin for damage or cancer.
People whose brains have been injured by concussions, traumatic accidents, strokes, or neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson鈥檚 disease can benefit from targeted therapy. Experts also employ therapies for long-covid patients with memory and language problems.
The Rockland County case isn鈥檛 expected to cause a major outbreak, but it shows how even this rare disease can pop up in undervaccinated communities.
Although the disease is currently spreading almost exclusively among men who have sex with men, some cases are turning up in other populations 鈥 and that number is likely to grow if public health officials don鈥檛 effectively nip the outbreak in the bud.
Some people living with HIV and some state health officials are raising concerns about part of the federal effort to end the HIV epidemic: a new technology that analyzes blood samples to find emerging outbreaks. The critics say it鈥檚 too invasive and stigmatizing and might not be more effective than older public health approaches.
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