Practice Management
Parents are familiar with the sound—a barking cough emanating from their young child that they’re probably inclined to dismiss as “just croup.” Maybe they’ll call to see how soon the pediatrician can fit them in or even wait a day or two to see if it subsides. Now, though, there’s evidence that a croup-like cough could actually be a sign of COVID-19 infection in children under 5 years of age, according to an article just …
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Just when you thought you had clarity on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s mandate to vaccinate workers at businesses that employ 100 or more people against COVID-19, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the measure is invalid except for medical facilities that accept payments from Medicare or Medicaid. The decision came down 3 days after the mandate took effect. The mandate had required employees at affected businesses to either get vaccinated or submit …
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While still relatively rare, there have been 6,400 cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) related to COVID-19 in the United States—including 55 deaths—since the pandemic began, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With records for pediatric and adult infection continuing to be broken on a daily basis in some states and municipalities, it stands to reason that risk for MIS-C could also be increasing. The possibly good news …
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We don’t have to tell you that these are hard times to be working in an urgent care center. Staffing levels have been tight for years, and the increasing volume of patients flocking to every available outlet for testing or treatment while staff members may be going out for extended sick time due to their own infection is bringing the situation to a head. John Davidhizar, MD told KBTX TV news in Bryan, TX as …
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The Omicron variant of COVID-19 has been shown to produce less severe illness than previous varieties of the virus—for the most part. Much of the data assembled, to date, reflect lower risk for hospitalization and death in vaccinated patients. The unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated don’t necessarily run the same low risk. Perhaps more importantly, the World Health Organization just shared circumstances in which patients may be at high risk for severe disease even with …
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It’s been well established that vaccination is the best option for reducing risk for infection with SARS-CoV-2, but also in avoiding severe disease and poor outcomes in breakthrough cases. New data published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report shed some light on exactly which patients are still at increased risk for hospitalization or death from the virus even though they’re fully vaccinated (defined for purposes of the research as receiving a full complement of one …
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A few months ago, we shared the findings of a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicating that a 5-day course of remdesivir improved outcomes for hospitalized patients with “moderate-to-severe” COVID-19. Further study by another group of researchers now shows that a 3-day course reduced risk for hospitalization or death in patients with COVID-19 and certain comorbidities but who had not yet been hospitalized with the virus. The latest study, published …
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The longer the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the more consequences emerge—including among pediatric patients. Most recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study indicating that infection with SARS-CoV-2 is associated not only with worsened symptoms of already-diagnosed diabetes, but also with increased risk for newly diagnosed diabetes in patients under 18 years of age. In comparing cases of pediatric patients with COVID-19 (n=80,893) with those who did not (n=404,465), the researchers found a …
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The sharp rise in COVID-19 cases attributed to the Omicron variant so close after the winter holidays is a nonscientific (but probably accurate) indicator that people spent a lot of time in tight quarters, unmasked, with others whose immunization or exposure status was unknown to them. The more ominous prospect, given that many individuals got rapid tests (or insisted that visitors do so) before gathering, is that rapid antigen tests may not be much help …
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Due to supply chain concerns and the ongoing rapid rise in COVID-19 cases in the United States, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says it is moving to a weekly allocation cycle for related therapeutics for 3 weeks, starting January 3. HHS says it has stopped allocating bam/ete or Regen-COV to jurisdictions with 80% or more prevalence of the Omicron variant, given that data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate …
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