- Why are there so few Covid cases in Africa, compared to the rest of the world? Speculative
- Hospitals are still evading the law on transparency.
- Can a pharmacist deny a patient a morning-after pill?
- How the clothes you wear can affect your health. Futuristic
- More reasons not to tax people with the highest incomes. Insightful
- Are Democrats robbing Medicare to pay for Obamacare?
Category: COVID-19 and Public Health
Covid-Chasing Travel Nurse Bubble Burst but Not Going Away
The Wall Street Journal had an article about the falling use of travel nurses. At the peak of the pandemic nurses willing to travel from one hot spot to another could sometimes earn as much as $10,000 per week.
Hospitals across the U.S. have had to dig deep to treat patients during the Covid-19 pandemic as some of the most lucrative parts of their business, elective surgeries, were constantly postponed. The flip side of that has been a bonanza for the companies that helped them keep staffing levels adequate as well as for the brave and flexible people who filled those positions.
By contrast, nurses who stayed in their regular jobs often found themselves working mandatory overtime in understaffed hospitals filled to the brim with Covid patients. When they complained about too many hours, low wages and a lack of personal protection equipment their complaints were often dismissed.
Tuesday Links
- Jeffrey Singer: More on Monkeypox Deja Vu
- Having bombs explode around you when you are young affects your mental health later on. Why do researchers conduct studies like this? Nothing else to do?
- Is anyone truly resistant to Covid?
- Court: drug companies can’t help Medicare enrollees pay what their insurance doesn’t cover either with copay coupons or through charities. (paywall)
- The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that extending Obamacare subsidies would cost about $45 billion next year and $495 billion over a decade. (WSJ)
Friday Links
- AMA encourages doctors to learn health economics. They even have their own online course. Haven’t checked it out, but I suspect it is more sociology than economics.
- Amazon wants to be your doctor.
- Déjà vu: Monkeypox testing looks like the Covid testing fiasco all over again.
- “probably half of all Covid infections have happened this calendar year — and it’s only July.”
- Insulin bill in the Senate looks like a done deal.