There is a growing mental health crisis today. Numerous people report being depressed or anxious due to Covid and its aftermath. As the Texas mall shooting illustrates there is a lot of untreated mental illness in the United States. Indeed visits to the emergency rooms (ER) for mental health problems are on the rise. A mental health issue such as a panic attack can mimic other problems. I met a cab driver who said he went to the ER for a heart attack but it turned out to be a panic attack. Purportedly, hundreds of thousands of Medicaid patients seek treatment in emergency rooms for mental health.
Category: COVID-19 and Public Health
Thursday Links
- Why don’t we have more human challenge trials for vaccines and other new drugs?
- Study: Minimum wage increases do not reduce poverty.
- Why does Medicare require a three-day hospital stay before it will pay for a skilled nursing facility transfer? Medicare Advantage plans don’t require this.
- Has the US ever defaulted on its debt before? Yes, three times.
- More than 20% of Medicaid enrollees no longer meet the criteria for program eligibility. States have not conducted redeterminations of Medicaid enrollees’ eligibility in more than three years.
- US Surgeon General: loneliness is as dangerous as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.
- Medical researchers: Don’t skip breakfast. Even a cup of coffee can have a positive effect. (NYT)
Surgeon General: Devastating Impact of the Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation
The U.S. Surgeon General is afraid you don’t hangout enough with friends. Seriously, in the Information Age when people have never been more connected, he believes loneliness a public health crisis. Calling it an epidemic of loneliness, the Surgeon General’s report spans 81 pages including references.
White House Ends Vaccine Mandates for Federal workers
Actually, the mandates don’t actually end until “May 11, the same day that the COVID-19 public health emergency ends.”
The Committee to Unleash Prosperity comments:
It was clear by late 2021 that the vaccines had no meaningful effect on transmission, and that prior infection was at least as protective as vaccination. These mandates have been pure drama ever since, and the United States is among the last countries in the world to still impose them. They backfired in many ways-making many millions of Americans suspicious of Big Brother orders requiring the shots.