Day: April 1, 2020

Now that most states have shut down temporarily to combat the coronavirus, our greatest enemy is our own impatience.

The measures taken over the past two weeks in 37 states and parts of eight more hurt. They kill off businesses that are critical to the livelihoods of millions of people. They throw millions of Americans out of work and off their health insurance.

And for a little while longer, it won’t even be clear if they’re doing anything.

“We have sacrificed so much already, but it feels like nothing is working. That’s because it takes weeks to see results. We …

“Team 700 to B4.”

Before Covid-19 took over our hospital, I may have heard this page — which summons a medical team because a patient’s heart has stopped — once or twice a week. In the past couple of days, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard it.

One recent page stands out: It was the afternoon of March 23, for a male in his early 30s with no medical problems. We had maxed out on his ventilator settings yet his lungs couldn’t deliver the oxygen his body needed, so his heart had naturally stopped.

Over the past …

The Trump administration has reportedly declined to reopen enrollment under the Affordable Care Act so that people without health insurance — including some newly laid-off workers — can enroll in coverage during the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump administration officials had initially said they were considering creating a special enrollment period on Healthcare.gov for the pandemic after insurance companies and Democrats asked them to, but ultimately ruled against it, telling Politico they were “exploring other options.”

There are concerns of a significant increase in the uninsured rate after mass layoffs over the last month, as health insurance in the US is largely …

Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) benefited from stock trades worth millions of dollars shortly before the general public was alerted to the severity of the Covid-19 crisis, selling off shares in industries that have been adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic and buying shares of companies that have benefited, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) report published late Tuesday.

Loeffler, who sits on the Senate Health Committee, first began selling stocks on January 24 — the same day that committee held a private all-members session on Covid-19 — and continued making trades in late February and early March.

According to her …

Social distancing and self-isolation have quickly emerged as essential public health responses to coronavirus. As of March 31, 270 million people in at least 33 states, 89 counties, and 29 cities across the US have been urged by their government officials to stay home. While these policies often come with seismic life disruptions, the vast majority of Americans are taking them seriously. Most of us don’t even think twice about it: we just stay home.

But “stay-at-home” orders are impossible to follow if you can’t afford a home in the first place. The US Department of Housing and Urban …