The COVID-19 pandemic has done untold economic damage in the United States, with businesses shuttering and people self-isolating at home to try to slow the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus. You might think hospitals and health care systems would be immune to this wave of financial ruin, since there’s no industry more crucial to America’s fight against the pandemic. You’d be wrong. The health care industry experienced an estimated $500 billion reduction in revenue during the first quarter of 2020, said Dr. David Shulkin, a former secretary of Veterans Affairs and former president and CEO of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. “There’s no doubt our hospitals, health systems, health care providers in general have taken a significant financial hit during this crisis,” Shulkin said during a HealthDay Live Stream interview. “In general, the average hospital has seen about a 40% to 45% decrease in operating revenue during this period of time.” In response, hospitals and health care companies have announced a wave of layoffs and cutbacks: Mayo Clinic said it will cut $1.6 billion in employee pay after suffering a $3 billion revenue loss, including furloughs or shorter hours for about 30,000 staff members. Quest Diagnostics is furloughing nearly one in every 10 employees, more than 4,000 people, following a decline in testing that’s not related to the coronavirus. These cuts…  read on >

Daily use of inhaler medication by Americans with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has increased during the coronavirus pandemic, a new study shows. Researchers analyzed data on controller inhaler use by nearly 7,600 patients who use Propeller Health, which uses electronic medication monitors to track inhaler use and alerts patients about missed doses. Between the first seven days of January 2020 and the last seven days of March, mean daily controller inhaler use rose 14.5%. During the last week of March, more than 53% of patients had 75% or greater daily controller medication adherence, up 14.9% from the first seven days of January, according to the study published May 4 in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice. “We are encouraged by the increase in patient adherence to their medications for asthma and COPD, which is critical to avoiding symptoms and keeping patients out of the hospital during this pandemic,” said first author Leanne Kaye, a senior research manager at Propeller Health at the time of the study. Increases in daily controller medication adherence increases were seen in all age groups, with older patients overall showing higher adherence at the start of the study period. There were no significant statistical differences in improved medication use between asthma and COPD patients. “This research further supports that digital health tools can improve adherence…  read on >

As the U.S. coronavirus case count climbed past 1 million and the death toll neared 60,000, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday that forces beleaguered meat processing plants to stay open so the country’s food supply isn’t threatened. The order used the Defense Production Act to classify meat processing as critical infrastructure, to try to keep chicken, pork and other meat flowing to supermarket coolers, the Associated Press reported. More than 20 meatpacking plants have been shuttered under pressure from local authorities and their own workers because of the virus. Others have slowed production as workers have fallen ill or stayed home to avoid getting sick, the wire service said. But unions representing workers in those plants quickly fired back at the order, saying the White House was prioritizing cold cuts over workers’ health, the AP reported. Meanwhile, a troubling study out of China found evidence that the novel coronavirus can spread through air. That had been demonstrated in lab experiments, but now Chinese scientists say they captured tiny droplets containing genetic markers for the virus in real-world conditions, The New York Times reported. “Those [droplets] are going to stay in the air floating around for at least two hours,” said Linsey Marr, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech who was not involved with the Chinese study. “It…  read on >

New research adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests men are far more vulnerable to severe COVID-19 than women are. Although both genders fall ill in the same numbers, men are 2.5 times more likely to get severe disease and die, the study from China showed. The finding comes as scientists in New York and California are starting to test a novel hypothesis that sex hormones might play a part in disease severity. Last week, doctors on Long Island started treating COVID-19 patients with estrogen to boost their immune systems, The New York Times reported. And beginning next week, physicians in Los Angeles will start treating male patients with progesterone, a hormone that is predominantly found in women. Progesterone has anti-inflammatory properties and might prevent the immune system from overreacting, the researchers explained. “There’s a striking difference between the number of men and women in the intensive care unit, and men are clearly doing worse,” Dr. Sara Ghandehari, a pulmonologist and intensive care physician at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, told the Times. She is the principal investigator for the progesterone study. But experts who study sex differences in immunity warned that hormones may not be the answer. Even elderly women with COVID-19 are outliving their male peers, despite drastic reductions in levels of hormones for women after menopause, they noted. In the study…  read on >

If you toss and turn every night because the coronavirus epidemic has left you anxious and worried, one sleep expert has some advice. Financial struggles, loss of control, or worries about loved ones can affect peoples’ quality and duration of nightly sleep, said sleep psychologist Emerson Wickwire, an associate professor of psychiatry and medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “We are especially vulnerable to poor sleep during COVID-19, due to spending more time in front of blue light-emitting screens and the loss of traditional daytime structure and schedules,” said Wickwire. He is director of the Insomnia Program at the University of Maryland Medical Center. “An adequate amount of healthy sleep is crucial to help regulate mood, improve brain function, and increase energy and overall productivity. Without enough sleep, our bodies simply cannot function at their best,” Wickwire explained in a news release from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). It’s important to focus on healthy sleep habits during the coronavirus pandemic. Get enough sleep. If you’re unsure how much sleep you should get, use the AASM’s bedtime calculator, which can help identify your appropriate bedtime based on when you need to wake up and your age. Maintain a sleep routine. Structure your schedule to support a regular bedtime and wake time. If possible, skip naps. Create a comfortable sleep environment: Make…  read on >

Social distancing guidelines crafted by the federal government to stem the spread of coronavirus expire on Thursday, but President Donald Trump said Wednesday he has no intention of extending the measures. “They’ll be fading out, because now the governors are doing it,” Trump explained during a media briefing. More than half of the United States, at least 28 states, will be partially reopened by the end of the week when their stay-at-home orders end, CNN reported. That is likely welcome news to the millions of businesses that have had to shut down or curtail operations during six weeks of stay-at-home orders, with 3.8 million Americans added to the nation’s jobless rolls on Thursday. That brings the six-week total to more than 30 million newly unemployed, The New York Times reported. As the U.S. coronavirus case count climbed past 1 million and the death toll neared 61,000, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that forces beleaguered meat processing plants to stay open so the country’s food supply isn’t threatened. The order used the Defense Production Act to classify meat processing as critical infrastructure, to try to keep chicken, pork and other meat flowing to supermarket coolers, the Associated Press reported. More than 20 meatpacking plants have been shuttered under pressure from local authorities and their own workers because of the virus. Others have slowed production…  read on >

As national guidelines on social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic expired Thursday, the White House announced an initiative to produce a COVID-19 vaccine that could be available nationwide by January. President Donald Trump said it is not too optimistic to try to produce roughly 300 million doses of vaccine in eight months, enough for all Americans, the Washington Post reported. “No, I’m not overpromising. I don’t know who said it, but whatever the maximum is, whatever you can humanly do, we’re going to have. And we hope we’re going to come up with a good vaccine,” the president said during a coronavirus task force briefing Thursday. Even the shorter timeline still means there would be no full protection from the coronavirus until after most Americans are likely to have returned to work or school. Dubbed “Operation Warp Speed,” the goal is to produce hundreds of millions of doses by January, Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, said Thursday. “We want to go quickly, but we want to make sure it’s safe and it’s effective,” he said on the “Today” show. “I think that is doable if things fall in the right place.” That’s likely welcome news to the millions of businesses that have had to shut down or curtail operations during six weeks of stay-at-home orders, with 3.8 million Americans added to the…  read on >

The coronavirus pandemic has families spending plenty of “quality time” together, but living under the same roof 24 hours a day can tax relationships, an expert in child development says. This is “a completely new and unique situation,” said Murray Krantz, a professor in the College of Human Sciences at Florida State University, in Tallahassee. Luckily, there are ways to reduce the risk of conflict, he noted. First, assess family members for resilience, which is “surprising strength in the face of adversity,” Krantz said, and encourage those people. For example, a person might show leadership by finding ways to make an ordinary recipe taste better, lightening the mood for everyone, or managing their emotions in a way that sets an example for others, he explained. “Don’t insist that it has to be you. You may not be the person who saves the day here,” Krantz said in a university news release. It’s also a good idea to maintain a family schedule for things such as sleeping and eating. Trouble can brew if some people are making noise while others are trying to sleep. “I think everybody should be reasonably expected to get up roughly at the same time, give or take a half-hour or maybe even an hour, but at least we’re all on our circadian rhythms here,” Krantz said. Eating together at least once…  read on >

The U.S. coronavirus death toll could reach 100,000, President Donald Trump predicted Sunday night. That number is far higher than the 60,000 lives lost that was predicted just a few weeks ago, but Trump continued to push states to reopen their economies. In a virtual town hall meeting on Fox News, Trump acknowledged that COVID-19 has proved more deadly than expected, but added that parks and beaches should begin reopening and schools should resume classes in the fall. “We’re going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people,” he said. “That’s a horrible thing. We shouldn’t lose one person over this.” Even as the death toll predictions rose, a new analysis finds inadequate levels of testing for the coronavirus in 60% of states, many of which are reopening after weeks of lockdown. The analysis, conducted by the Associated Press, uses a 2% testing rate per month — a rate advised by federal officials that many public health experts still feel falls short. In a recent White House briefing, officials said each state would receive enough testing materials to test 2.6% of their populations in both May and June. Representatives of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also offered another number — 2% — without explaining the reason for the discrepancy between the two rates. But according to the AP analysis, right now…  read on >