Clinical

As states start softening or dropping restrictions on the number of people who can gather inside and out, and even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is looking at where and when masks should be considered “essential,” a disturbing trend threatens to blow up all the progress that’s been made in curbing the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past month, there’s been a steady decline in the number of people making visits strictly to get …

Urgent care professionals as a group are among the most trusted healthcare workers. How else can you explain the public’s willingness to trust their healthcare to a stranger in ever-growing numbers? It’s especially important, then, to ensure that your team is educating patients and making recommendations for vaccination against the COVID-19 vaccine from a place of experience and credibility. Unfortunately, that can’t be said in some quarters—and the consequences are starting to become evident. Cleveland …

COVID-19 vaccinations are being administered at a good clip in most states—with many governors reacting by easing restrictions on social gatherings. Unfortunately, those events coincide with more than half the country seeing record rates of infection. One new development that could be cause for optimism (for the health of the country and the future of urgent care) is the realization that monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) seem to mitigate the effects of SARS-CoV-2. In fact, the Department …

Widespread vaccination is being credited for helping Israel reduce its rate of COVID-19 infection, with the crowning achievement being a day free of deaths attributed to the virus for the first time since last June. That same day, only 0.04% of tests administered turned up positive. Just days before, the country passed the 5 million mark in vaccinations, meaning nearly 54% of the population—and 80% of those over age 16—had gotten at least one COVID-19 …

Cases of influenza for the 2021–21 season were roughly 1% of what we’ve seen in the U.S. over the past few years (just 2,000 cases between September 2020 and April 2021, vs the typical 200,000-plus), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Much of the credit is being given to precautions taken because of the COVID-19 pandemic. While wearing masks, ratcheting up our attention to everyday hygiene, and social distancing helped us ward …

It’s a vast overstatement to say that the COVID-19 crisis has passed, but at this point enough study has been done for the National Institutes of Health to look more deeply into outpatient management, rather than to view every case as imminently life-threatening. The latest update even includes a section entitled Outpatient Management of Acute COVID-19. Read it and you will find recommendations for screening, triage, and therapeutic management of patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who …

It was presumed last spring that restricted movements, isolation, and fear over a deadly disease would have a deleterious effect on the mental health of many Americans. That concern has now been validated in the form of a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which shows that the number of adults who reported recent symptoms of anxiety or a depressive disorder jumped 5% (from 36.4% to 41.5%) between August 2020 and February …

Reports of blood clots and a “pause” in administering one COVID-19 vaccine in the United States have strengthened some people’s resolve to hold off on getting a shot. The irony—and danger—of this stance has been made very clear in a study just released by the University of Oxford. According to the paper, risk for cerebral venous thrombosis due to COVID-19 infection is actually “many-fold” higher than it is from receiving the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine or the …

Results of efforts to get Americans vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus have been mixed. While New Mexico has administered at least one dose to roughly 78% of its population, Alabama has only done so with 47% of its residents, according to the COVID Data Tracker on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website. While there have been issues with rollout in many states, March data from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Vaccine Monitor show 20% …

For the sixth year in a row, cases of sexually transmitted diseases eclipsed previously historic numbers in the United States, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis all grew in 2019, adding up to 2.5 million cases, capping a nearly 30% increase over a 5-year period. Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that congenital syphilis nearly quadrupled during that time. Despite treatment options, STDs …