Category: Corona Virus

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By Jon Levine

Published Dec. 16, 2023, 11:25 a.m. ET

As disgraced former Gov. Cuomo's one-time health czar, Zucker was responsible for a March 2020 order which forced Empire State nursing homes to accept coronavirus-positive residents returning from hospitals. REUTERS

Former state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker will be hauled in front of Congress next week to answer questions about the states disastrous response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Zucker will sit Monday for a closed-door, transcribed interview with members of the Houses Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

As former Gov. Andrew Cuomos health czar, Zucker was responsible for a March 2020 order which forced Empire State nursing homes to accept coronavirus-positive residents returning from hospitals.

Zucker also forbade nursing homes from testing the returning residents for the virus.

The virus was especially deadly for the elderly, and the order potentially caused 1,000 additional nursing-home deaths, according to an analysis from The Empire Center, a conservative-leaning think tank.

Howard Zucker had a role in crafting that policy for Governor Cuomo, said Staten Island GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, the only New Yorker on the committee. We want to know what he knows in terms of what led to the [order] and why when they had alternative options such the US Navy Comfort ship and South Beach Psychiatric Center in Staten Island they continued to mandate these nursing homes take COVID patients.

I would like to know what was the difference in reimbursements for individuals put in hospitals versus nursing homes, Malliotakis continued. Did that financial decision play a role?

Zucker faced no real consequences for the disastrous decision and in January he was appointed deputy director for global health at the Centers for Disease Control by the Biden administration.

If Dr. Zucker finally wants to tell the truth about his involvement in this reckless mandate, then we welcome his appearance, but unfortunately he has never been transparent or honest in the past so this may be a waste of time, said Janice Dean, a Fox News meteorologist and advocate for COVID victims. I pray his conscience has gotten the better of him and hes ready to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Our families deserve that.

Zucker declined to comment.

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Howard Zucker to testify on New York's disastrous COVID response in front of House committee - New York Post

A new crop of coronavirus variants is sweeping the U.S., just as many Americans are hitting the roads and skies to be with friends and family for the holidays.

Health officials are keeping a close eye on the fast-growing JN.1 strain, which now accounts for roughly 21 percent of COVID-19 cases in the country, up from about 3.5 percent a few weeks ago. In the Northeast, JN.1 is to blame for more than 30 percent of coronavirus infections, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicts that its presence will only continue to increase nationwide.

The JN.1 variant, a close relative of the highly mutated BA.2.86, isnt the only one gaining steam. While HV.1 continues to be responsible for the biggest share of COVID infections, strains like HK.3, JG.3 and JD.1.1 are also spreading.

We know this virus is changing, and it has changed again, CDC Director Mandy Cohen, M.D., said in a recent briefing. You want to get that updated COVID vaccine for this exact reason.

Similar to how the flu shot is updated each year to target new strains, the COVID-19 vaccine was recently revamped to more closely match the variants that are currently circulating. So far, public health experts say its remained effective against JN.1 and other variants in the mix.

If youre relying on last years COVID-19 shot to protect you from this years variants, thats like having a vaccine that was for an apple, and now we're seeing oranges, says Jodie Guest, a professor and senior vice chair in the department of epidemiology at Emory Universitys Rollins School of Public Health. So we want to make sure you're getting the most recent type of vaccine, so we'll be able to protect you the best.

But uptake of the new COVID-19 vaccine has been low since the shot was approved in September about 17 percent of adults have received it, CDC estimates show leaving many Americans without optimal protection as we head into winter.

All this while COVID-19 hospitalizations are increasing in the U.S., climbing nearly 18 percent in recent weeks. Deaths from the virus are also rising; rates are up 25 percent in recent weeks, federal data shows.

Theres no indication that JN.1 and the other new variants are causing more severe infections, the CDC says. Rather, this trend is quite expected this time of year, says William Schaffner, M.D., an infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville.

Each winter in the past that COVID has been with us, we've had increases, he says, hand-in-hand with spikes in other respiratory illnesses. Data from the CDC shows that in addition to COVID-19, activity is picking up for flu and RSV throughout the country. In particular, several states in the South are reporting high or very high respiratory illness activity levels.

Respiratory illness activity levels in the U.S. Data as of Dec. 7, 2023.

Courtesy CDC

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JN.1, HV.1 COVID-19 Variants Spread Ahead of Holidays - AARP

After Pirola, its descendant JN.1 is in news post being detected in US, China and now India. The new strain with a single mutation in spike protein compared to Pirola or BA.2.86, was found in Karakulam, Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala on December 8. JN. 1 isn't very different from previous Omicron strains with high transmissibility and mild symptoms, yet preventive measures are important as vulnerable populations may always be at risk. Fever, runny nose, sore throat, gastro are among the symptoms that are being associated with this strain. (Also read: China detects seven cases of new Covid-19 subvariant JN.1. What are the symptoms?)

While JN.1 was first detected in USA in September, in China 7 cases were found on December 15 which has led to concern about its spread. Center of Disease Control and Prevention warned that the fresh cases of Covid-19 and influenza may affect America's health care system. The new Covid variant JN.1 is now making up an increasing share of cases, the CDC's tracking shows.

"The JN.1 strain of coronavirus has recently been detected in Kerala. The case was detected in an RT-PCR-positive sample from Karakulam in Thiruvananthapuram district of the southern state on December 8. The 79-year-old woman had mild symptoms of Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and has since recovered from Covid. The sub-variant first identified in Luxembourg is a descendant of the Pirola variant (BA.2.86) which itself is a descendant of Omicron sub variant. It contains mutation in the spike protein, that may contribute to increased infectivity and immune evasion. The spike protein plays a crucial role in helping the virus infect people. Because of this, the spike protein is also part of a virus that vaccines target, meaning vaccines should work against JN.1," says Dr Tushar Tayal, Lead Consultant, Internal Medicine, CK Birla Hospital, Gurugram.

JN.1 makes up about an estimated 15 per cent to 29 per cent of cases in the United States. Although there is increased infectivity and transmissibility, the symptoms of JN.1 are relatively mild and there is no news of increased hospitalisation.

"The reported symptoms include fever, runny nose, sore throat, headache, cough, and, in some cases, mild gastrointestinal symptoms.

Because of its transmissibility, JN.1 can become the dominating strain of circulating COVID virus unless proactive preventive measures are not followed which are - frequent hand sanitization, usage of Triply mask and social distancing," adds Dr Tayal.

Experts are also warning people to get booster shots apart from the social distancing measures and wearing face masks.

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Covid variant JN.1 in Kerala; symptoms to prevention tips, all you want to know - Hindustan Times

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the essential talking points of the far-right globally has been that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is no more harmful than the seasonal flu. From former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro calling COVID-19 a little flu, to Donald Trump claiming in February 2020 that the virus would be seasonal and miraculously disappear by Easter, this propaganda campaign aimed to minimize the dangers posed by COVID-19 and condition society to live with COVID-19 and all other pathogens.

With over 27 million excess deaths attributable to COVID-19 and estimates that hundreds of millions of people are now suffering from Long COVID-19 worldwide, such a comparison with the flu was always a transparent falsehood. Still, the propaganda has had an impact on public consciousness, with the great mass of the population unaware of the ongoing dangers they face as new variants of SARS-CoV-2 evolve and sweep across the globe every few months, leaving in their wake ever-growing numbers of dead and disabled.

While many principled scientists have exposed this central falsehood of the pandemic, none have done so as comprehensively as a study published last Thursday by the team of researchers led by Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, the director of the Clinical Epidemiology Center, chief of research and development service at the Veterans Affairs (VA) Saint Louis Health Care System.

The study, published in the Infectious Disease section of the Lancet, is an 18-month comparative analysis following patients after hospital admission for COVID-19 versus influenza. It proves definitively that not only is COVID-19 far deadlier than influenza, but it also causes more long-term health injuries and damage to the body.

While this was not the authors intention, the study also provides the first measurable comprehensive assessment of the long-term health complications of influenza, what is known as Long Flu, which are considerable.

Similar to infection with SARS-CoV-2 and a slew of other pathogens such as measles, Epstein-Barr virus, herpes, and other coronaviruses, the influenza virus too can cause long-term health complications after the acute phase of the infection has subsided. This phenomenon was already known to some extent by the historical record of the 1918 influenza pandemic, but until now there had been very little quantitative data on Long Flu.

Senior author Al-Aly said in a news release by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, The study illustrates the high toll of death and loss of health following hospitalization with either COVID-19 or seasonal influenza. It is critical to note that the health risks were higher after the first 30 days of infection. Many people think theyre over COVID-19 or the flu after being discharged from the hospital. That may be true for some people. But our research shows that both viruses can cause long-haul illness.

This latest study by Al-Alys team, which is responsible for some of the most pioneering research on the impacts of COVID-19, is very timely. The US and much of the world are presently in the grips of a massive winter wave of infections caused by the highly infectious and immune-resistant Omicron JN.1 subvariant. In multiple countries where JN.1 is already dominant, most significantly in Singapore which has very high vaccination rates, COVID-19 hospitalizations are beginning to rise dramatically.

Utilizing the VAs vast database, the study authors included over 82,000 patients who had been admitted for COVID-19 between March 1, 2020, and June 30, 2022, encompassing the pre-Delta, Delta, and Omicron phases of the pandemic. However, because of influenzas rarity in the US during this period when some semblance of mitigation measures remained in place to combat COVID-19, the authors resorted to using a historical cohort (between October 1, 2015, and February 28, 2019) of nearly 11,000 influenza patients who had been hospitalized for a comparator.

A total of 94 pre-specified health outcome measures were analyzed, encompassing ten organ systems that included cardiovascular, coagulation and hematological, fatigue, gastrointestinal, kidney, mental health, metabolic, musculoskeletal, neurological, and pulmonary. The acute phase of their infections was defined as the first 30 days after their admission to the hospital and the post-acute phase of infection encompassed days 31 to 540, or 18 months.

Unsurprisingly, the absolute death rate was far higher for COVID-19 than the flu, with a cumulative death rate of 28.46 for COVID-19 and 19.84 for influenza per 100 persons, or 43 percent higher for COVID-19. In the first 30 days, the COVID-19 group had an increased risk of death that was 2.5 times higher than those admitted with the flu. Although this discrepancy declined over the intervening six-month intervals, it continued to remain elevated.

The acute phase of COVID-19 is far more often severe than that of flu, with roughly three times as many COVID-19 hospitalizations in the past year than the fluroughly 1 million compared to 360,000and four times as many official COVID deaths (roughly 83,000) as flu deaths (21,000).

Also, over the 18-month period, COVID-19 was associated with significant increased risk in 64 of the 94 measured health outcomes that encompassed nearly every organ system in the human body. By comparison, seasonal influenza was only associated with increases in six of the 94 health outcomes that included, angina, tachycardia, type 1 diabetes, and three pulmonary outcomes (cough, hypoxia, and shortness of breath).

As just one example of a measured health outcome, those with COVID-19 had a 2.4 times higher risk of heart attack in the first 30 days than those with the flu. This risk factor remained elevated throughout the 18-month period. Those who had COVID-19 also faced an increased risk of pulmonary embolism and many other potentially lethal conditions throughout the study period. Another uniquely devastating impact of COVID-19 pertains to mental health illnesses, including acute stress and suicidal ideations.

The authors highlighted two key findings in their study. With the exception of the gastrointestinal system, more than 50 percent of the total incident burden of disease in both COVID-19 and influenza occurred in the post-acute phase of infection, or between days 31 to 540. Secondly, COVID-19 patients had a higher burden of disease across all organ systems than the flu (except the pulmonary system) in both the acute and post-acute phase.

Summarizing these findings in an email communication with the World Socialist Web Site, Dr. Al-Aly wrote, We observed higher risks of death, healthcare utilization and hits in most organ systems in COVID-19 than the flu. This was evident in pre-Delta, Delta, and Omicron. And also evident in vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. COVID-19 remain a much more serious threat to human health than the flu.

He added that the study findings underscore that COVID-19 is really a multisystemic disease and flu is more of a respiratory virus. That is not to say that the pulmonary consequences of COVID-19 were negligible, as it only slightly trailed the flu in this domain throughout the study period.

Dr. Al-Aly then made the point, The burden of health loss from Long-Flu is substantial, but the burden of health loss from Long-COVID-19 is even higher. Yet, both Long-COVID-19 and Long-Flu lead to more health loss than either acute COVID-19 or Flu. Conceptualizing these illnesses as acute events obscures the much larger burden of health loss that occurs in the post-acute phase. [Emphasis added]

In a press release accompanying the study, Dr. Al-Aly clarified this shift in scientific understanding of these pathogens, writing, the big ah-ha moment was the realization that the magnitude of long-term health loss eclipsed the problems that these patients endured in the early phase of the infection.

With SAR-CoV-2, a highly infectious non-seasonal pathogen with a robust capacity for further evolution, and for which existing vaccines and prior infections offer very limited immunity, the current global policy of forever COVID means that society is being forced to endure multiple annual waves of mass infection, with unknown but far-reaching long-term consequences. This amounts to a continuous, full-scale assault on billions of people who face the consequences of preventable but often non-visible injuries like kidney damage, as well as the more well-known brain fog and severe fatigue brought on by Long-COVID.

The recent publication in Statistics Canada on the experiences of Canadians with Long COVID underscores the completely unsustainable character of this policy. It provides striking confirmation of the many studies conducted on the impact of COVID-19 by Dr. Al-Aly and colleagues, above all their study published last year on the compounding risk of Long COVID-19 after each reinfection with SARS-CoV-2.

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COVID, Capitalism, and Class War: A Social and Political Chronology of the Pandemic

A compilation of the World Socialist Web Site's coverage of this global crisis, available in epub and print formats.

With a population of 38.3 million in Canada, the report noted that about two-thirds of adults reported experiencing at least one confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infection, while many have had multiple infections since the beginning of the pandemic. Of these, 3.5 million (one in nine) had experienced long-term symptoms, with 2.1 million still experiencing them as of June 2023. Half said they had not seen improvements in their symptomology.

Commenting on these data, which had been predicted by many experts, Lond COVID specialist Dr. Claire Taylor wrote, If you input the Statistics Canada data into David Steadsons graph, you get 14.6 percent first infection get Long COVID-19 and 38 percent by third infection. The modelling curves were correct. This is literally insane.

Providing further context to the alarming findings of the latest VA study, The Hill published a report last week highlighting the high number of excess deaths being observed by life insurers in 2023 compared to the same period in 2019. In the first three quarters of this year, close to 160,000 more Americans have died than in the same pre-pandemic period.

The Hill wrote, Actuarial reportsused by insurers to inform decisionsshow deaths occurring disproportionately among young working-age people. Nonetheless, Americas chief health manager, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opted in September to archive its excess deaths webpage with a note stating, These datasets will no longer be updated to some extent, we know what is killing the young, with an actuarial analysis of government data showing mortality increases in liver, kidney, and cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes.

However, they are incapable of supplying the why.

The findings of the latest VA study, the data from Statistics Canada, and the ongoing elevated rates of excess deaths place into stark relief the necessity for a preventative strategy towards COVID-19 and all infectious diseases, rather than a reactionary status quo that plays Russian roulette with the health of the working class while funneling ever-greater wealth to the financial oligarchy.

Indeed, the trillions being hoarded by the worlds billionaires needs to be immediately appropriated and redirected into a massive global public health program, centered on renovating infrastructure to make all indoor spaces safe against disease transmission, including through the use of HEPA filters, ventilation, safe Far-UVC ultraviolet irradiation devices, and other sanitation measures. Through such a globally coordinated program, SARS-CoV-2, influenza and numerous other pathogens could be eliminated throughout the world, saving millions from death and long-term disability each year.

Additionally, funds must be made available for researchers to study the long-term impacts of infections, design treatments and conduct extensive health evaluations to address the developments of new diseases in individuals.

Altogether, the latest study led by Al-Aly demands a radical shift in all antiquated conceptions towards viral pathogens and the diseases they cause. Neither the initial damage caused during the acute phase of infections, nor the prolonged suffering that impacts a sizeable percentage of patients, should be accepted by modern society with its vast technological progress and capabilities.

Eliminating or drastically reducing transmission of all pathogens will not build up a so-called immunity debt that must inevitably be repaidthe latest lie peddled by the same right-wing forces who have compared COVID-19 to the flu. Rather, this socialist public health strategy will free future generations from the unnecessary suffering wrought by an outmoded social order.

Dr. Al-Aly and colleagues have provided critical insight into the ongoing mass excess deaths and the mass disabling event of Long COVID. However, as the WSWS has previously noted, SARS-CoV-2 is simply a biological entity whose unconscious aim is to infect again and again. It is the social and political response of world capitalism, overseen by a conscious and thoroughly criminal profit-driven ruling class, that has given the virus free rein to carry out its ongoing assault on global society. They must be swept aside to enable the further progress of humanity.

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New study proves that COVID-19 is far more harmful and deadly than the flu - WSWS

Japan said that the average number of influenza patients designated medical institutions nationwide had hit warning levels at their fastest pace in 10 years, it was reported. The spread of flu cases reflects lowered influenza immunity after cases had dropped in recent years amid anti-infection measures implemented against the coronavirus pandemic, Japan Times reported citing health experts. The influenza virus is spreading about a month earlier than normal, they said.

Across almost 5,000 institutions, 166,690 patients had been reported in the week through December 10, averaging 33.72 people per facility, Japan's health minister said. This has surpassed the warning level of 30, it informed. During the same period, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases estimated that the number of patients nationwide totaled around 1,118,000.

Coronavirus cases have also been increasing for the third consecutive week, authorities said. This means both the virus could spread further as year-end and New Year's social gatherings take place in the country. School and class-specific closures have been required at 6,382 educational facilities nationwide in the week through Sunday, authorities have said.

Influenza outbreaks typically occur in the winter and the end of spring but this year saw an unusual increase in cases from August. Flu cases were also seen in October as they exceeded the advisory level for that month of 10 people per institution.

"Individual measures for preventing infection are the same as those for COVID-19, including getting vaccinated, wearing masks, and avoiding crowded places," Nobuhiko Okabe, head of the Kawasaki City Institute for Public Health, said.

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Japan flu cases hit high levels at fastest pace in 10 years. What about Covid? - Hindustan Times

A study of hospitalized Veterans Affairs (VA) patients found that combination therapy was not associated with decreased mortality for multidrug-resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter infections, researchers reported yesterday in Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology.

The retrospective cohort study, led by a team of VA researchers, looked at VA patients who were hospitalized with MDR Acinetobacter bacteremia and received antibiotics 2 days prior through 5 days after the culture date from 2012 through 2018. The aim was to assess the impact of antibiotic treatments on in-hospital, 30-day, and 1-year mortality and costs.

MDRAcinetobacter spp.was identified in 184 patients. Most patients were older (mean age, 67 years), White, non-Hispanic men. The vast majority of cultures identified wereA baumannii (90%), while 3% wereA lwoffii,and 7% were otherAcinetobacter species.Half (50.5%) of the infected patients died in hospital, 44% within 30 days, and 67.9% within 1 year.

Penicillins/beta-lactamase inhibitor combinations (51.1%) and carbapenems (51.6%) were the most prescribed antibiotics. In unadjusted analysis, extended-spectrum cephalosporins and penicillins/beta-lactamase inhibitor combinations were associated with a decreased odds of 30-day mortality, but the effect was insignificant after adjustment (adjusted odds ratio (aOR), 0.47; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.21 to 1.05 and aOR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.37 to 1.53, respectively). There was no association between combination therapy vs monotherapy and 30-day mortality (aOR, 1.55; 95% CI, 0.72 to 3.32).

The results are noteworthy, the authors say, because while the Sanford Guide and the Infectious Diseases Society of America recommend combination therapy (high-dose ampicillin-sulbactam plus an additional agent) for treating severe MDRAcinetobacterinfections, the findings add to evidence from prior studies that have found limited improved clinical outcomes with combination therapy.

"Our results provide additional comparative effectiveness demonstrating a lack of benefit to combination therapy given within 2 through +5 days from the culture date," they wrote.

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Global flu activity rises, led by Northern Hemisphere hot spots - University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Photo: Kittiphan Teerawattanakul/Eye Em/Getty Images

In 2022, healthcare spending in the United States increased 4.1% to $4.5 trillion, or $13,493 per person, according to new analysis from the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

This was much slower than thegrowth in the nominal gross domestic product, which increased 9.1%.

Federal COVID-19 supplemental funding to the health sector through the Provider Relief Fund and the Paycheck Protection Program was highest during the initial year of the pandemic. It continued to affect healthcare expenditures in 2021 and 2022, although at reduced levels.

Funding to the health sector through these programs was $174.6 billion in 2020, but just $2 billion in 2022, the report said.

In 2022, strong growth in Medicaid and private health insurance spending was offset by the continued declines in federal supplemental COVID-19 funding.

Overall, healthcare spending growth in 2022 was faster than the 3.2% growth in 2021, but much slower than the rate of 10.6% in 2020.

Hospital spending (2.2% growth) reached $1.4 trillion in 2022, representing 30% of overall healthcare spending.

Growth in expenditures for hospital care was 2.2% in 2022, lower than the 4.5% growth in 2021. The slower growth in 2022 reflected a decrease in hospital care spending by private health insurance, Medicareand Medicare, and by a decline in other private revenues.

Physician and clinical services spending (2.7% growth) reached $884.9 billion, or 20% of total healthcare expenditures in 2022. Spending growth increased 2.7% in 2022, the slowest rate of growth in almost a decade and lower than the increases of 5.3% in 2021 and 6.6% in 2020.

This slower growth is due to a slowdown in the use of services and slower growth in prices. Spending for independently billing laboratories slowed in 2022 because of reduced COVID-19-related testing.

WHY THIS MATTERS

The report's numbers reflect spending and utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic, with growth now returning to a more normal range.

This study will also appear in the January 2024 issue of Health Affairs.

"Health care expenditures since 2020 have reflected volatile patterns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and the federal government's response to the public health emergency," said Micah Hartman, a statistician in the CMS Office of the Actuary and first author of the Health Affairs article. "The growth in healthcare spending in 2022 of 4.1% was more consistent with the pre-pandemic average annual growth rate of 4.4% over 201619. It remains to be seen how future healthcare spending trends will materialize, as trends are expected to be driven more by health-specific factors such as medical-specific price inflation, the utilization and intensity of medical care, and the demographic impacts associated with the continuing enrollment of the baby boomers in Medicare."

THE LARGER TREND

Some of the report's major findings show:

U.S. healthcare spending grew 4.1% to reach $4.5 trillion in 2022, faster than the increase of 3.2% in 2021, but much slower than the rate of 10.6% in 2020. The growth in 2022 reflected strong growth in Medicaid and private health insurance spending that was somewhat offset by continued declines in supplemental funding by the federal government associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, the insured share of the population reached 92% (a historic high). Private health insurance enrollment increased by 2.9 million individuals, and Medicaid enrollment increased by 6.1 million individuals.

In 2022, 26.6 million individuals were uninsured, down from 28.5 million in 2021 (a difference of 1.9 million individuals).

Gross domestic product continued to increase at strong rates of growth in both 2021 and 2022, increasing 10.7% and 9.1%, respectively. With a lower rate of healthcare spending growth of 4.1% in 2022, the share of GDP devoted to healthcare fell to 17.3% in 2022, lower than both the 18.2% share in 2021 and the highest share in the history of the National Health Expenditure Accounts, 19.5% in 2020. During 2016-19 the average share was 17.5%.

Growth in total healthcare spending in 2022 reflected a slowdown in personal healthcare spending for hospital care (from 4.5% in 2021 to 2.2% in 2022), dental services (from 18.2% in 2021 to 0.3% in 2022), and physician and clinical services (from 5.3% in 2021 to 2.7% in 2022).

This decrease was more than offset by faster growth in nonpersonal healthcare spending, which accelerated in 2022 due largely to a turnaround in the net cost of insurance, according to the report.

Medicaid and private health insurance spending also influenced growth in healthcare spending in 2022. Medicaid spending increased 9.6% in 2022 after growth of 9.4% in 2021 and 9.3% in 2020.

From 2019 to 2022, cumulative Medicaid spending increased 31%, or 9.4% per year on average, and enrollment accounted for most of the growth as it increased 24.6%.

Medicaid enrollment increased by 6.1 million people in 2022. During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals retained Medicaid coverage until the redetermination process began this April.

Private health insurance spending increased 5.9% in 2022 after an increase of 6.3% in 2021 and a decline of 0.8% in 2020.

The number of uninsured individuals declined for the third consecutive year, from 28.5 million in 2021 to 26.6 million in 2022, as the insured share of the population increased to 92%, a historic high.

Marketplace enrollment increased by 1.7 million people in 2022, and employer-sponsored insurance enrollment increased by 1.5 million people, accounting for 86% of total private health insurance enrollment and 88% of spending.

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Healthcare spending growth less than half of 2020 COVID-19 numbers - Healthcare Finance News

US life expectancy has risen by 1.1 years, from 76.4 years in 2021 to 77.5 years in 2022, according to provisional data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Preventions National Center for Health Statistics. Yet the increase does not cancel out the 2.4-year decrease in life expectancy that occurred between 2019 and 2021, due in large part to excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Decreases in COVID-19 deaths contributed most to the increase in average life expectancy, followed by reduced deaths from heart disease, unintentional injuries, cancer, and homicide.

In addition, life expectancies increased for many racial and ethnic groups, although underlying disparities between groups remained. For instance, American Indian and Alaska Native populations gained 2.3 years in life expectancy from 2021 to 2022. However, the difference in average life expectancy between White people and American Indian and Alaska Native individuals was about 10 years, with White people living an average of 77.5 years and American Indian and Alaska Native individuals living an average of 67.9 years.

Published Online: December 13, 2023. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.24683

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Life Expectancy in US Climbed After Declines Related to COVID-19 - JAMA Network

Wearing a well-fitting mask minimizes your likelihood of contracting and spreading the virus. BPHC strongly recommends wearing a mask:

Choose a mask that fits snugly against your nose and chin with no large gaps around the sides of the face. Due to the more transmissible omicron variant, consider wearing a disposable surgical mask, or if you will be in close contact with the public, a KN95 mask.

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A cross-sectional study identified several racial differences in the clinical presentation and treatment of Lyme disease, researchers reported today in JAMA Network Open.

The study by researchers with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that, among 1,395 Lyme disease patients (50.4% men, median age 48 years) treated at a specialty clinic in suburban Maryland, Black patients had 4.93 times (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.02 to 12.02) the odds of being diagnosed as having disseminated disease compared with patients who only had signs of the erythema migrans (EM) rashthe most common early sign of infection. The EM rash typically occurs within days or weeks of a deer tick bite.

Among 1,325 patients, Black patients (odds ratio [OR], 2.07; 95% CI, 1.12 to 3.84), women (OR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.09 to 1.77), and younger patients (per 10 years: OR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.20) all independently had higher odds of being in the symptoms-only group.

Analysis of 1,295 patients also found that Black patients had a significantly longer median time to appropriate antibiotic treatment (35 days) compared with White patients (7 days). This was significant among patients with EM (Black, 26 days; White, 4 days) but not those with disseminated disease or symptoms only. Initial inappropriate antibiotics were found in 6 of 37 Black patients (16.2%) and 90 of 1,165 White patients (7.7%)

When administered early, antibiotics cure Lyme disease in more than 99% of cases. Untreated infection can lead to complications involving the joints, heart, and nervous system.

Although this is one of the few large, clinic-based studies to examine racial differences in Lyme disease treatment, the study authors note that the findings are consistent with prior surveillance and insurance-claims studies. They suggest EM under-recognition could be attributed to EM images on Black patients being underrepresented in medical literature, gaps in healthcare access, racial discrimination, and implicit bias.

"Efforts are needed to increase patient and clinician awareness to ensure equitable reductions in disease burden," the authors wrote.

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Rate of young kids hospitalized for RSV spiked after first year of COVID pandemic - University of Minnesota Twin Cities