Racial minorities have greater long-term harms from COVID-19, data show A longitudinal study yesterday in Frontiers in Public Health shows Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) COVID-19 patients in America had greater post-COVID-19 burdens than non-Hispanic, white peers. CIDRAP

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Few Americans say they know how much health care will cost: Gallup Less than 20 percent of Americans say they know how much they will have to pay before receiving health care treatments, according to a report. The Bentley-Gallup Business in Society Report survey, … lsforza The Hill

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Many Americans postpone surgeries due to cost, job worries - UPI.com Older adults frequently delay needed surgery because of financial concerns, a new study finds. UPI

...Nearly half of people ages 50 and older who were very concerned about the cost of surgery wound up not having an operation they had considered, researchers reported Tuesday in the journal JAMA Network Open. 

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Where Are the Nation’s Primary Care Providers? It’s Not an Easy Answer - KFF Health News Politicians keep talking about fixing primary care shortages. But flawed national data leaves big holes in how to evaluate which policies are effective. Lydia Zuraw KFF Health News

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Measles making a comeback in US due to vaccine skepticism, says CDC The highly transmissible disease was found in north-east states in recent weeks and is likely to spread to the midwest and west coast The Guardian

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The US hasn't seen syphilis numbers this high since 1950. Other STD rates are down or flat Infectious syphilis cases in the U.S. rose by 9% in 2022. That's according to a new federal government report released Tuesday on sexually transmitted diseases in adults. AP News

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Religious people coped better with the COVID-19 pandemic, research suggests People of religious faith may have experienced lower levels of unhappiness and stress than secular people during the UK's COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, according to new University of Cambridge ... Science X Phys.org

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In a milestone, California says those with COVID-19 can leave home sooner — but there's a catch California now says people with COVID can leave home earlier than before, if their symptoms are mild and improving. But they need to mask up, or risk infecting others. Yahoo News

California's relaxed COVID isolation guidance marks a milestone in public health messaging about the pandemic: Even newly infected people no longer need to isolate if they have no symptoms, or they can leave home sooner if the illness starts improving quickly. ...

How Fringe Anti-Science Views Infiltrated Mainstream Politics — And What It Means in 2024 - KFF Health News Opposition to vaccines and other public health measures backed by science has become politically charged. That makes dangerous misinformation much harder to fight. khnkytjaw KFF Health News

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Confused about Covid? Here’s how to behave in 2024 and what to do if you test positive Covid etiquette is ambiguous in the absence of advice from the UK Health Security Agency. Yahoo News

Dr Mark Faghy is an associate professor in respiratory physiology at the University of Derby and leads several research projects on the virus. He explains that we are not out of the woods yet.

EU needs trillions of investment for 2050 climate target - research The European Union will need 1.5 trillion euros ($1.6 trillion)per year of investments to meet its 2050 net zero emissions target, research backed by Green EU lawmakers said on Monday. Kate Abnett Reuters

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New COVID studies show varied viral clearance time in patients with lower immunity Two new studies show immune-compromised patients, including those with cancer and HIV, have varied times until they clear the virus, with some at increased risk for persistent COVID-19 infections. CIDRAP

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Here's why COVID-19 isn't seasonal so far Human immunity and behavior may be more important than weather for driving seasonality when it comes to COVID-19. Tina Hesman Saey Science News

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Some recent data suggest that, for now, COVID-19 may be a year-round problem, driven more by human behavior and immunity levels than weather patterns.

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