Behind COVID in Nursing Homes; Preexisting Protections at Risk
- Many nursing home employees work at multiple facilities, which is a possible reason COVID infections have spread so rapidly and persistently in this setting, Jackie Fortiér writes ~ They Work in Several Nursing Homes to Eke Out a Living, Possibly Spreading the Virus (Kaiser Health News)
- Maintaining protections for preexisting conditions may hinge on the outcome of Congressional elections in certain states, Will Stone writes ~ More Than Politics On The Line For Voters With Preexisting Conditions (NPR)
- Anti-science rhetoric and the dissemination of COVID conspiracy theories have contributed to America’s dismal response to the pandemic. Bruce L. Miller digs into possible reasons for the science denialism and how the medical community can respond ~ Science Denial and COVID Conspiracy Theories (JAMA)
- Governments recruiting COVID contact tracers “face a stark reality: tracers’ inability to persuade contacts to take precautions may prove costly in terms of illness and death,” Graham Mooney, PhD, writes. Mooney details the limits of early contact tracing efforts in order to highlight why we may be falling short today ~ “A Menace to the Public Health” — Contact Tracing and the Limits of Persuasion (New England Journal of Medicine)
- Will seniors form pods with their peers to reduce loneliness or tough it out solo this winter? Judith Graham explores how some older adults are planning to handle the pandemic in the dark, cold months ahead ~ Seniors Form COVID Pods to Ward Off Isolation This Winter (NPR/Kaiser Health News)
- “COVID-19 arrived like a sucker punch, rapidly and menacingly infiltrating every sphere of my life with fear and uncertainty,” writes Stephanie Parks Taylor, MD, MS, who shares how the pandemic has upended her life and work ~ Shear Forces (JAMA)
- Holly Fernandez Lynch, JD, MBE, and colleagues discuss the obligation institutions have to provide unproven interventions to their patients. According to the authors, it all comes down to the quality of evidence ~ Emergency Approvals for COVID-19: Evolving Impact on Obligations to Patients in Clinical Care and Research (Annals of Internal Medicine)
Fred N. Pelzman, MD, of Weill Cornell Internal Medicine Associates and weekly blogger for MedPage Today, follows what’s going on in the world of primary care medicine. Pelzman’s Picks is a compilation of links to blogs, articles, tweets, journal studies, opinion pieces, and news briefs related to primary care that caught his eye.
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