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The majority of private health insurance companies have stopped waiving patients' fees associated with treatment for COVID-19 as most had done since the early days of the pandemic, a new study has found.
According to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), 72% of U.S. insurers who previously waived cost-sharing or entirely covered treatment costs have quit doing so and another 10% will be phasing out such waivers by the end of October.
In a previous study done in the earlier days of the pandemic, KFF found that 88% of fully insured COVID-19 patients would have had all of their hospitalizations costs waived by their insurer. The group noted that insurance companies were enjoying higher profits during periods of lockdown and uncertainty, as many people put check-ups and elective procedures on hold.
COVID-19 cases in Florida nursing homes have surged more than 20-fold since June as vaccination rates among staff continue to lag far below the national average. Still, the industry is pushing back against a new Biden administration vaccine mandate for its workers over concerns that many will quit rather than comply.
“By the federal government singling out nursing homes with a vaccination requirement that does not apply to healthcare personnel at other locations and in other healthcare sectors, we fear that our already critical workforce shortages will worsen,” said Emmett Reed, CEO of the Florida Health Care Association, which represents 310 of the state’s 700 nursing homes.
Already, 88% of nursing homes surveyed by the association in July said they faced a staffing shortage in the previous month, and more than half said they had cut admissions because of labor challenges. Nearly three-fourths said they needed to bring in temporary workers through a staffing agency to cover shifts, and all but a few had to ask staff to work overtime or take on extra shifts.
More critically, nearly two-thirds said their budgets can’t sustain those staffing expenses for more than the next six months. Nearly 60% said they were already operating at a loss.
Under the new mandate, expected to go into effect next month, administrators will need to get their staff vaccinated or risk the loss of vital Medicare and Medicaid funding. Although the federal government is still working out the details of the plan, Florida nursing home administrators say any level of cut is too much. Statewide, only 48% of workers are fully vaccinated, compared to 62% nationally.
According to the Health & Human Services agency today there are 15,778 Florida Covid-19 hospitalizations - a decrease of 386 from yesterday's total of 16,164. (258 hospitals reported today).
There are 3518 Florida Covid-19 patients in the ICU - that's a decrease of 80 from yesterday's total of 3598. (264 hospitals reported).
According to the NY Times as of August 28 the 7-day avg. for deaths in Florida is 247 deaths per day. This is an increase of 61% over the past 14 days.
On Monday morning, students at Sarasota County Schools will be expected to mask up or head home, unless they have a note signed by a doctor.
The new rule has plenty of fans, as COVID-19 cases continue to spike in schools.
But it has also generated an organized and vocal backlash among parents, some of whom are planning to show up at their child's school on Monday to protest, and others who will be sending their child to school without a mask or a medical exemption, simply claiming to opt out of the new mandate.
“The goal is to not comply,” said Amy Cook, a mom who led an effort to sue the school district over its mask mandate last school year. “They will have forms that say if you touch my child you’ll have a lawsuit on your hands.”
Moms For Liberty, an organization with chapters all over the country that was established by Sarasota County School Board member Bridget Ziegler, is the movement leading the resistance.
Ziegler is no longer part of the organization, but she supports a parents' right to choose whether their child wears a mask.
Rumors of a planned "sick out," in which teachers call in sick to protest the mandate, prompted teachers union officials to caution school staff that they could face consequences if they took part in such an effort.
On Friday morning Sarasota Classified/Teachers Association Executive Director Barry Dubin sent an email to teachers, telling them that a coordinated "sick out" could be viewed as a strike, which is not legal for teachers in Florida.
According to the Health & Human Services agency today there are 15,778 Florida Covid-19 hospitalizations - a decrease of 386 from yesterday's total of 16,164. (258 hospitals reported today).
There are 3518 Florida Covid-19 patients in the ICU - that's a decrease of 80 from yesterday's total of 3598. (264 hospitals reported).
According to the NY Times as of August 28 the 7-day avg. for deaths in Florida is 247 deaths per day. This is an increase of 61% over the past 14 days.
While hospitalizions are declining the 7-day avg of FL cases (21,489 per day through August 27) remains at a stubborn plateau since Aug. 11th (21,377). This is probably due to cases increasing in the 19 & under age group as schools opened - while cases are declining in all the other age groups.
Younger cases means less hospitalizations overall - however due to the sheer numbers more children are being hospitalized compared to previous waves - plus some infected children develop problems such as long covid.
Sunday Florida COVID-19 update: Number of patients in hospitals and ICU drops again
Current COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida fell for the fourth consecutive day and the state’s intensive care units experienced a patient reduction for the third straight day, according to Sunday’s U.S. Department of Health & Human Services report.
Sunday’s report was based on data from 258 hospitals, the same as Saturday’s report.
As for COVID-19 hospitalizations, Florida hospitals reported 15,778 patients, equal to 27.5% of all patients in those hospitals. That’s a 386-person drop in COVID patients from Saturday and 1,386 down from Wednesday’s report, the last day hospitalizations increased.
Back to school is proving difficult for Florida teens, the age group with the highest positivity rate in the state for new cases. Some teens like Goldberg, of Plantation, have mild cases of COVID. Others, like 15-year-old Paulina Vazquez of Deerfield Beach, end up hospitalized in intensive care.
As the virus’ highly contagious delta variant continues to rage across the state, the positivity rate for teenagers is 23%, nearly more than five times what it was on June 1. For two weeks in a row, Florida teens 12-19 have the highest test positivity rate of any age group.
The impact of school reopening can be seen in the increase in new COVID cases, too.
The state reported 54,032 new cases in teens 12-19 for the last three weeks as large school districts such as Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade opened for the new year. For the week ending Aug. 19, cases in teens were up 16%, while cases in all other age groups fell by 3% to 12% or stayed the same from the previous week, according to the Florida Department of Health.
School, sports, after-school clubs, and the bustling cafeteria put teens in close quarters with each other. Experts say the highly contagious delta variant spreads to the people most vulnerable, the age groups least vaccinated. In Florida, that’s the teens, who experts say are not only getting infected — but also fueling community transmission.
As of April, teens 12 and older are eligible to get vaccinated for COVID-19. About 49% in Florida between 12 and 19 have at least one shot, compared with 87% of people 65 and older.
Most scientists have been predicting that new Covid-19 variants will emerge after Delta. I'm hoping that this new C.1.2 variant from South Africa isn't able to out-compete Delta. Too soon to know for sure. But it does seem to be mutating very fast.
New COVID variant detected in South Africa, most mutated variant so far
A new coronavirus variant, C.1.2, has been detected in South Africa and a number of other countries, with concerns that it could be more infectious and evade vaccines, according to a new preprint study by South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform. The study is awaiting peer review.
Scientists first detected C.1.2 in May 2021, finding that it was descended from C.1, which scientists found surprising as C.1 had last been detected in January. The new variant has "mutated substantially" compared to C.1 and is more mutations away from the original virus detected in Wuhan than any other Variant of Concern (VOC) or Variant of Interest (VOI) detected so far worldwide.
While first detected in South Africa, C.1.2 has since been found in England, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland.
The scientists believe that the number of available sequences of C.1.2 may be an underrepresentation of the spread and frequency of the variant in South Africa and around the world. The study found consistent increases in the number of C.1.2 genomes in South Africa on a monthly basis, rising from 0.2% of genomes sequenced in May to 1.6% in June and then to 2% in July, similar to the increases seen with the Beta and Delta variants there.
The study also found that the C.1.2 lineage has a mutation rate of about 41.8 mutations per year, which is nearly twice as fast as the current global mutation rate of the other variants. The scientists stated that this short period of increased evolution was also seen with the Alpha, Beta and Gamma variants, suggesting that a single event, followed by a spike in cases, drove faster mutation rates.
More than half of the C.1.2 sequences have 14 mutations, but additional mutations have been noticed in some of the sequences, suggesting that evolution within the lineage is ongoing, according to the study.
More than half (about 52%) of the mutations in the spike region of the C.1.2 sequences have previously been seen in other VOCs and VOIs. The mutations N440K and Y449H, which have been associated with escape from certain antibodies, have also been noticed in C.1.2 sequences. The scientists stressed that the combination of these mutations, as well as changes in other parts of the virus, likely help the virus evade antibodies and immune responses, including in patients who have already been infected with the Alpha or Beta variants.
The scientists added that further work is required to understand the exact impact of these mutations and to see if they give the variant a competitive advantage over the Delta variant.
Last edited by wondermint2; 08-29-2021 at 02:37 PM..
"C.1.2 contains multiple substitutions (R190S, D215G, N484K, N501Y, H655Y and T859N) and deletions (Y144del, L242-A243del) within the spike protein, which have been observed in other VOCs and are associated with increased transmissibility and reduced neutralization sensitivity. Of greater concern is the accumulation of additional mutations (C136F, Y449H and N679K) which are also likely to impact neutralization sensitivity or furin cleavage and therefore replicative fitness. While the phenotypic characteristics and epidemiology of C.1.2 are being defined, it is important to highlight this lineage given its concerning constellations of mutations."
There’s a job opening that you may be interested in.
Being the next Florida surgeon general may sound pretty daunting. You might even imagine that you’re not qualified.
But trust me, there’s less than meets the eye here. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Florida’s surgeon general gig has apparently been converted to a no-show job, the kind of position that comes with a title and very little power.
The governor’s office announced this week that the current occupant, Dr. Scott Rivkees, is stepping down next month.
I’d say we’re sorry to see him go, but nobody was even sure he was still there.
His resignation announcement was more of a confirmation that Rivkees was still alive. Before the announcement of his departure, he had been missing for so long, he was running the risk of being the subject of a Silver Alert to Florida motorists or getting his face put on the side of milk cartons.
Rivkees, who was appointed two years ago, disappeared April 13, 2020, moments after addressing the public about the then-new COVID-19 pandemic.
“We don’t have a vaccine at the present time, so our mitigation measure is the social distancing,” Rivkees said at a news briefing in the Capitol. “As long as we’re going to have COVID in the environment — and this is a tough virus — we’re going to have to practice these measures so that we are all protected …
“Based on what has been reported, probably a year if not longer is what some individuals have talked about,” Rivkees said.
Florida’s chief medical officer talking about virus-mitigation measures lasting for a year or more practically led to kidnappers throwing a pillowcase over his head and tossing him into the back seat of a waiting car.
Rivkees didn’t even get to stay for the end of his briefing. He was spirited away immediately by a Gov. Ron DeSantis staffer on the pretext of attending a “meeting,” later determined by public records to have violated the space-time continuum by occurring hours earlier in the day.
There’s a job opening that you may be interested in.
Being the next Florida surgeon general may sound pretty daunting. You might even imagine that you’re not qualified.
But trust me, there’s less than meets the eye here. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Florida’s surgeon general gig has apparently been converted to a no-show job, the kind of position that comes with a title and very little power.
The governor’s office announced this week that the current occupant, Dr. Scott Rivkees, is stepping down next month.
I’d say we’re sorry to see him go, but nobody was even sure he was still there.
His resignation announcement was more of a confirmation that Rivkees was still alive. Before the announcement of his departure, he had been missing for so long, he was running the risk of being the subject of a Silver Alert to Florida motorists or getting his face put on the side of milk cartons.
Rivkees, who was appointed two years ago, disappeared April 13, 2020, moments after addressing the public about the then-new COVID-19 pandemic.
“We don’t have a vaccine at the present time, so our mitigation measure is the social distancing,” Rivkees said at a news briefing in the Capitol. “As long as we’re going to have COVID in the environment — and this is a tough virus — we’re going to have to practice these measures so that we are all protected …
“Based on what has been reported, probably a year if not longer is what some individuals have talked about,” Rivkees said.
Florida’s chief medical officer talking about virus-mitigation measures lasting for a year or more practically led to kidnappers throwing a pillowcase over his head and tossing him into the back seat of a waiting car.
Rivkees didn’t even get to stay for the end of his briefing. He was spirited away immediately by a Gov. Ron DeSantis staffer on the pretext of attending a “meeting,” later determined by public records to have violated the space-time continuum by occurring hours earlier in the day.
Most scientists have been predicting that new Covid-19 variants will emerge after Delta. I'm hoping that this new C.1.2 variant from South Africa isn't able to out-compete Delta. Too soon to know for sure. But it does seem to be mutating very fast.
New COVID variant detected in South Africa, most mutated variant so far
A new coronavirus variant, C.1.2, has been detected in South Africa and a number of other countries, with concerns that it could be more infectious and evade vaccines, according to a new preprint study by South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform. The study is awaiting peer review.
Scientists first detected C.1.2 in May 2021, finding that it was descended from C.1, which scientists found surprising as C.1 had last been detected in January. The new variant has "mutated substantially" compared to C.1 and is more mutations away from the original virus detected in Wuhan than any other Variant of Concern (VOC) or Variant of Interest (VOI) detected so far worldwide.
While first detected in South Africa, C.1.2 has since been found in England, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland.
The scientists believe that the number of available sequences of C.1.2 may be an underrepresentation of the spread and frequency of the variant in South Africa and around the world. The study found consistent increases in the number of C.1.2 genomes in South Africa on a monthly basis, rising from 0.2% of genomes sequenced in May to 1.6% in June and then to 2% in July, similar to the increases seen with the Beta and Delta variants there.
The study also found that the C.1.2 lineage has a mutation rate of about 41.8 mutations per year, which is nearly twice as fast as the current global mutation rate of the other variants. The scientists stated that this short period of increased evolution was also seen with the Alpha, Beta and Gamma variants, suggesting that a single event, followed by a spike in cases, drove faster mutation rates.
More than half of the C.1.2 sequences have 14 mutations, but additional mutations have been noticed in some of the sequences, suggesting that evolution within the lineage is ongoing, according to the study.
More than half (about 52%) of the mutations in the spike region of the C.1.2 sequences have previously been seen in other VOCs and VOIs. The mutations N440K and Y449H, which have been associated with escape from certain antibodies, have also been noticed in C.1.2 sequences. The scientists stressed that the combination of these mutations, as well as changes in other parts of the virus, likely help the virus evade antibodies and immune responses, including in patients who have already been infected with the Alpha or Beta variants.
The scientists added that further work is required to understand the exact impact of these mutations and to see if they give the variant a competitive advantage over the Delta variant.
That mutation rate is a real threat if this strain is more contagious and dangerous than Delta IMO
The scientists stated that this short period of increased evolution was also seen with the Alpha, Beta and Gamma variants, suggesting that a single event, followed by a spike in cases, drove faster mutation rates.
So super spreader events like Sturgess rally or a big GOP political rally not only create more cases but faster mutation rates… not good at all
Last edited by loves2read; 08-29-2021 at 03:47 PM..
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