Column: The end of infrastructure – BOE Report

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Though it pains me like a gunshot wound to say, I may have been a bit hard on politicians lately. In reality, its probably fairer of me to say that they dont all make babies cry, and that rabies is in reality quite rare among them. Going a step further, many are indeed quite likely drawn to politics by a sincere desire to make the world better. Its not their fault if they didnt know that the arena theyd be playing in is ankle deep in rats and shysters (this may be my last column if Ive sufficiently offended the pro-rat movement, but one needs to walk the razors edge every now and then to feel alive).

Its a dirty job but someones got to do it. Some aspects are not easy either; no matter how vehemently I may disagree with some of their underlying philosophies, its hard to criticize any politician for or against the way they handled coronavirus. There is no rule book. Well, thats not entirely correct; institutions like the World Health Organization have rule books, I suppose you could call them. They provide documents like A checklist for pandemic influenza risk and impact management that have chapter after chapter of useful info on preparing for an emergency, slowing the spread, health care planning strategies, etc. But as can be seen in this 34-page document, a single solitary page is dedicated to Maintaining Essential Services and Recovery. Now, that is a WHO document and therefore health-management-heavy, but it does not refer the user to anywhere else to deal with the economy at large so presumably, they think that is sufficient, and we find nuggets like this, that provide no follow up guidance: Recovery from a pandemic will require an all-of-society collaboration between government, businesses, community organizations and the public.

Hows that working out so far? The world is currently on fire; people are being burned at the stake for various thought crimes, and a generation of car-torching arts-degree/soft-science barbarians is trying to blow up anything put in place by Boomers. And this is all happening without considering coronavirus. Now with the actual incidence of a pandemic, it just gets that much worse, and there is invoked in the hearts of certain politicians a kind of unbelievably frantic soul-searching as to what are indeed essential services. While it didnt take long to find a list of what was declared essential, over any timeframe longer than a season, that line begins to blur mightily. Many politicians have been caught speaking out of both sides of their mouths, loudly declaring certain industries to be troublesome and on the way out, and quietly declaring them to be critically important.

We all know who that refers to. Oil and natural gas production were, of course, deemed an essential service, but that designation brings up an interesting conundrum in certain power circles. How long is it an essential service for? Until coronavirus passes? And then what back on the death to fossil fuels bandwagon? You sure about that?

Two recent pipeline announcements make clear the polar opposite opinions on the future value of the energy we rely on, particularly natural gas. Oddly enough, they both happened on a Sunday, not a normal day for news releases, but normal isnt a word that applies to 2020.

First, Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway announced a $9.7 billion acquisition of natural gas pipelines in the US from Dominion Energy. Second, Dominion Energy announced they were abandoning plans to build the Atlantic Coast pipeline, an $8 billion natural gas line that would have carried natural gas from West Virginia eastward to Virginia and North Carolina.

If those two parties were really quick at making really big decisions, we could surmise that both of them had light bulbs go on in their heads simultaneously on a Sunday morning the realization that it is pretty much impossible to build a new pipeline in North America anymore. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline people had recently won a 7-2 supreme court ruling that vindicated the project and allowed them to proceed with construction, and yet even with that decision in their pocket they looked at the hordes of academic supremacists, professional alarmists, nihilists, and eco-socialists standing on the horizon, armed with signs and schoolchildren, and said Ah, to hell with it.

A third announcement pounds the final coffin nail home with a vengeance. The Dakota Access Pipeline, in operation since 2017, was ordered shut down over flaws in the original environmental review. Consider the staggering reach of this judgement no longer is it just impossible to build a new pipeline, but the cold, grey, dead hands of anti-industrialists can reach back in time to have un-approved what has already been safely in operation for three years.

It is hard to fathom how Keystone XL will be built in this environment, sad to say. Theres no doubt TC Energy will be able to build 90 percent of it, but that last 10 percent might be a bit of a problem. Indeed, this week the US Supreme Court felled another tree on XLs path by denying a key permit. It now seems only a matter of time before TC Energy says Ah, to hell with it also.

These developments are of course more than mildly problematic for energy security and electrical grid stability, but there is scant appetite for talk of such things these days. No ones interested because theyve all gone post-industrial and if those things are important to you, well, youre just a symbol of everything thats wrong with the world. Just try to bring those topics up in the greasy world of social media, and the key platforms will censor you, and mainstream media publications will pretend you dont exist.

At the end of the day, cagey Mr. Buffett spotted the inexorable trend and capitalized on it while few others seem to fully grasp whats happening. The days of pipeline construction, interstate or international (here in North America anyway), are pretty much over. Climate activists have honed their skills and now play the legal system like a violin; they believe they are The Force of Good and there is no stopping them. Buffett sized up the situation and realized, correctly, that existing infrastructure is going to be one of the most valuable commodities out there. In a world that banishes competition, who wouldnt want to own the only pipelines in town?

Those celebrating the pipeline KOs shouldnt get used to the euphoria; it is becoming challenging to build any infrastructure. New power lines are protested, as are wind and solar farms, and so is anything at all that makes one or more people feel uncomfortable, for any reason whatsoever. Proponents of grand schemes like the Green New Deal are going to find out what its like when they start staking out all those high-speed rail lines they want to build to connect everywhere from NYC to Boca Raton to Keokuk. They will begin eating each other like rats when they realize the impossibility of what they claim to be able to do, but by then Atlas will have Shrugged, at least in the energy world, and the world will learn a hard lesson.

If you are a fan of irony, consider this: Justin Trudeau, caught between his staunchly activist inner network and economic reality, was backed into a corner and almost forced to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline system and carry on with the expansion. For every day that goes by, more of the TMX gets built, and the more likely its successful completion seems to be.

We might, therefore, be in a situation where Justin Trudeau builds the last major oil pipeline in North America. Dont try to make sense of it. Black is white, up is down, creators are legally subordinated to destroyers, feelings trump everything, grievances are the new constitution, and you can let your dog drive your car if you feel like it. Welcome to the roaring 20s.

In this effed up world, search for islands of sanity. Pick up The End of Fossil Fuel Insanity, available at Amazon.ca,Indigo.ca, orAmazon.com. Thanks for the support!

Read more insightful analysis from Terry Etamhere,or email Terryhere.

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Column: The end of infrastructure - BOE Report

How Billionaires Get Away With Their Big Con – CounterPunch

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About 75 percent of Americans trusted the federal government to do what is right when polled during most of the last years of the Eisenhower administration and early years of Lyndon B. Johnsons presidency.

In 2019, when the Pew Research Center released its most recent poll of public trust in the government, only 17 percent of Americans trusted their government. Its so bad that armed protesters have shown up nationwide to protest the tyranny of having to wear masks during a pandemic and have been cheered on by the president of the United States and Fox News.

This is no accident; its the result of a decades-long campaign by some of Americas richest people to tear apart the governing fabric of our nation, kicked off by their man, Ronald Reagan, proudly proclaiming at his January 20, 1981, inauguration that, [G]overnment is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.

Put yourself in the place of the heir to a multimillion-dollar fossil fuel empire, a situation akin to the heroic brother and sister who inherited a railroad from their dad in Ayn Rands novel Atlas Shrugged:

+ If you dont have to pay to dispose of cancer-causing byproducts from your refineries but can simply vent them into the air, you make more money.

+ If you can cut wages and threaten employees because they dont have a union, you make more money.

+ If you can run a pipeline across sacred Native American land atop a major national aquifer with minimal safety oversight, you make more money.

+ If you can hide your money from the IRS because the agency has had its budget slashed so badly that it can no longer do expensive audits of morbidly rich people, you can keep more of the money youve made.

+ If you can get the government to cut social programs and public education, thus lowering your taxes, you can keep more of the money youve made.

So how do you pull this off, when every one of these things hurts average Americans?

Easy. Just embark on a 40-year-long campaign, through think tanks, right-wing media, and massive PR efforts to convince average Americans that government is the cause of, not the solution to, their problems. Convince working-class Americans that gutting government is a good thing that will ultimately help them in some mystical, magical way through the incredible invisible hand of the marketplace.

Lewis Powell, a lawyer for Big Tobacco, launched the movement to do just this with his infamous memo in 1971, and billionaires have funded and promoted politicians who jump on board the government is evil bandwagon ever since.

And its largely worked, if the trust in government statistics compiled by the Pew Research Center since 1958 are accurate.

Back in 2011, I was up late one night watching Bloomberg News on a hotel TV. The American host was interviewing a very wealthy German businessman at a conference in Singapore.

Amidst questions about the business climate and the conference, the host asked the German businessman what tax rate he was suffering under in his home country. As I recall, the businessman said, A bit over 60 percent, when everything is included.

How can you handle that? asked the host, incredulous.

The German shrugged his shoulders and moved the conversation to another topic.

A few minutes later, the American reporter, still all wound up by the tax question, again asked the businessman how he could possibly live in a country with such a high tax rate on very wealthy and successful people. Again, the German deferred and changed the subject.

The reporter went for a third try. Why dont you lead a revolt against those high taxes? he asked, his tone implying the businessman was badly in need of some good old American rebellion-making.

The German businessman paused for a long moment and then leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees, his clasped hands in front of him pointing at the reporter as if in prayer. He stared at the man for another long moment and then, in the tone of voice an adult uses to correct a spoiled child, said simply, I dont want to be a rich man in a poor country.

There are a few wealthy Americans who understand this. But the billionaires who fund the Republican Party and right-wing media think its perfectly fine to rip the financial and political guts out of their own nation if it makes them a few extra bucks.

Theyve funded and facilitated movements like the Tea Party and the Boogaloo Bois, media outlets like Fox News and Breitbart, and organizations like the Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation, and ALEC. They throw piles of money at Republican politicians, so long as they never stray far from the deregulate, cut, denigrate line about American government.

As this nation shudders from a crisis of confidence in government during a deadly pandemic that hasunnecessarilykilled more than 100,000 of our fellow citizens, lets remember who brought this about. And all for a few extra pieces of gold.

This article was produced byEconomy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

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After years of incremental health care reform, more than $200 million in budget cuts threaten to turn back time – The Nevada Independent

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State officials presented to the Senate on Wednesday $233 million in proposed cuts from the health care budget that will slash key programs for low-income Nevadans and significantly pare back mental health services to ease a budget crisis caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Many of the proposed cuts will roll back initiatives spearheaded by lawmakers and the Department of Health and Human Services over the last few legislative sessions in an effort to improve health care in the state, which ranks among the worst in the nation. Health officials also plan to sweep dollars from existing accounts, such as one fueled by tobacco settlement dollars, to help make up the budget shortfall.

The recommended reductions to the Department of Health and Human Services budget will, if approved, make up nearly 20 percent of the $1.2 billion shortfall projected by the governors office and more than 42 percent of the proposed $549 million in agency rate reductions.

The K-12 general fund budget which represents about 34.9 percent of total general fund spending, slightly more than the 33.5 percent that Health and Human Services comprises faces proposed cuts of about $166 million.

The proposed health care cuts come as the Department of Health and Human Services continues to play an integral role in the states response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Richard Whitley, the departments director, noted in his budget presentation the difficulty of cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in health services most of which go toward supporting the most vulnerable Nevadans in the middle of a global pandemic.

What is being identified here is were delivering direct services in one hand in a crisis and were having to reduce down our spend with the other hand, Whitley said. I am doing the best I can at doing that with the least amount of harm possible, but there will be harm, and Im not here to say that peoples lives wont be impacted by these proposed reductions.

Medicaid

The most significant cuts, $140.4 million, will come to the states Medicaid program, which has seen a 9 percent increase in its caseload since February as Nevadans lost their jobs and turned to the state for health insurance. No Nevadans will lose their Medicaid coverage as a result of the budget cuts in part because of a mandate from the federal government that states not terminate anyone from the program in order to receive additional federal matching dollars but the state is planning to limit or eliminate the services they can receive.

For instance, Medicaid plans to eliminate 12 services deemed optional by the federal government, to the tune of $18.7 million in savings. Those services include optometry, tenancy support, occupational therapy, basic skills training and psychosocial rehabilitation benefits that both lawmakers and state health officials noted Medicaid enrollees rely on and arent going to be able to get elsewhere.

The framework of mandatory versus optional is not, I mean its almost embarrassing to use those terms because theyre only relevant to a federal congressional act in terms of what governs Medicaid, not to the people who do need the health care service, Whitley said. So I do know that we will have impacts on people and their lives may be worsened by these services being eliminated. I cant quantify that for you today. I just know I have limited spaces to go to make the reduction in our general fund spend.

Medicaid has also proposed a 6 percent across the board rate decrease for all services, which will save the state $53 million, and eliminate hard-fought rate increases approved by the Legislature during the 2019 session for acute hospital services, neonatal and pediatric intensive care services and personal care services, a savings of about $12.4 million. Hospitals waged a long, public campaign for their increases and, along with doctors and other providers, have long argued that Medicaid rates overall in Nevada arent high enough as is.

Suzanne Bierman, Medicaid administrator, pointed to a Kaiser Family Foundation report that shows that Nevada has one of the highest Medicaid-to-Medicare ratios compared to other states,

Nevada Hospital Association CEO Bill Welch, during a public comment session Wednesday evening, said the cuts will cost Nevada hospitals more than $100 million a year in payments, with hospitals spending another $500 million on uncompensated care.

Medicaid additionally plans to eliminate adult dental and limit dental services for pregnant women and children, limit physical therapy for adults to 12 sessions and eliminate certain duplicative hospice services from being provided in the home, for a total savings of $30.2 million. Remaining savings will come from delaying risk mitigation payments to managed care organizations, the private insurers paid by the state to provide Medicaid services.

Medicaid could see an additional $30 million in savings should the federal government extend the enhanced federal matching rate through the end of the year, a decision that doesnt have to be made until July 25. Officials are hoping to delay implementation of the Medicaid changes to Oct. 1, at which point they would have more information about their funding situation.

Whitley, asked where Medicaid would put the extra $30 million, said that it was a difficult question to answer.

Doing math on the page may be simple for budgetary people, but does turning something down really amount to turning it off? Does reducing the rate lose providers? Whitley said. The nuance of all of that would be considered and well work day and night to provide if resources become available.

Public and behavioral health

Another $19.1 million in cuts have been proposed to public and behavioral health care programs in the state, with the majority coming from the Southern and Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services agencies.

Some of the savings will be achieved by freezing hiring vacant positions within both mental health agencies. But Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services also plans to stop providing residential services to 270 people, referring them instead to other organizations, such as Catholic Charities and Share Village, unless they receive additional funding through the federal CARES Act.

The state has shifted the way it provides mental health services over the past several years, putting the emphasis on enrolling people in Medicaid and directing them to private providers, instead of having the state directly provide services. But Sen. Julia Ratti noted during the hearing that stripping back direct mental health dollars, coupled with the cuts to Medicaid, could essentially mean the state will only be providing mental health services to its prison population.

With the cuts that were talking about here, and then you pair those with the cuts to substance use treatment and mental health that we talked about in the Medicaid budget, and then you overlay housing, and the tenancy support I feel like maybe were reverting back to a place where if you really need behavioral health services, you almost have to be part of the criminal justice to access them, Ratti said. It feels like we're heading towards a perfect storm.

Lisa Sherych, administrator of the Division of Public and Behavioral Health, agreed.

These are extremely difficult decisions to make, Sherych said, choking up. I was very hopeful that this next session was going to be a great one based on last session. So, yes, our focus is primarily going to be the justice-involved population.

Other cuts to public and behavioral health will come in the form of $1.6 million in cuts to rural clinics, in the form of deferred start dates for staff, $1.5 million in tobacco prevention dollars approved last session, $1.6 million in problem gambling dollars and $2.3 million in sweeps from other funds.

Aging and disability services

State officials plan to find another $30.2 million by freezing caseloads for some of its Aging and Disability Services programs, including, notably, its Autism Treatment and Assistance Program, to the tune of about $5.7 million in savings.

The Legislature appropriated $17.4 million toward the program last session, including funds to reduce a roughly 800-child backlog in a program that was only serving about 200 children. Now, the program has 892 children enrolled in it, with 191 on the waitlist but those levels would be frozen under a proposed budget cut, though children will still be moved into the program at its current capacity as children age out or move.

Three other programs will also have their caseloads capped, including supported living arrangement services, which provide residential support to people so they can live in a community-based setting. The division has also proposed deferring a provide rate increase for SLAs, reducing payments for other programs, freezing vacant positions, eliminating travel and training and deferring maintenance on facilities.

Other cuts

Another $18.4 million in savings will come from Director Whitleys office, including $1.5 million of the $6 million in family planning dollars lawmakers appropriated in the 2019 session. The remainder will come from funds swept from the Healthy Nevada Fund, which was set up with tobacco settlement dollars to fund certain health grants.

The Division of Welfare and Supportive Services plans to contribute another $15.7 million in budget reductions, primarily through funding the salary cost for eligibility workers through December through the federal CARES Act, about $14 million in general fund savings. The rest is proposed to come from a reduced general fund match in child support and other administrative changes.

The Division of Child and Family Services will be responsible for the rest of the budget reductions, about $9.4 million. The majority of that, $5.1 million, will come from changes to child welfare, including a reduction in funds to incentivize Clark and Washoe counties to innovate their child welfare funding streams. Another $3.7 million will come from freezing 53 vacant juvenile correction positions and reducing the number of beds at juvenile correction facilities from 224 to 160.

Even with the reduction, Ross Armstrong, the divisions administrator, said that there should be enough beds to meet the needs, with an average daily census for calendar year 2019 of 157.

Across the country now for about the last decade, there's been a big push in reducing the number of young people we have locked up in correctional air, and that has occurred in Nevada as well, Armstrong said. We made sure we didn't cut the funding to the counties that work on the prevention work, we didn't cut parole, who does the aftercare to prevent them from going back into the facility, and we also maintained all of our children's mental health beds.

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After years of incremental health care reform, more than $200 million in budget cuts threaten to turn back time - The Nevada Independent

Trump administration sued again over rescission of transgender health care protections – Washington Blade

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Several advocacy groups on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration over its decision to remove transgender protections from the Affordable Care Act.

Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth; Callen-Lorde Community Health Center; Campaign for Southern Equality; Equality California; Fenway Health and the Transgender Emergency Fund are plaintiffs in the lawsuit the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Transgender Law Center, the National Womens Law Center, the Harvard Law Schools Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation and the private law firm Hogan Lovells filed on their behalf in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on behalf of the LGBTQ organizations. Darren Lazor, a trans man who lives near Cleveland, is also named as a plaintiff.

The Obamaadministration under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act determineddiscrimination based on sex applied to trans people. The U.S. Department ofHealth and Human Services on June 12 announced the Trump administrations planto reverse the rule had been made final.

The U.S.Supreme Court three days later ruled Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964bans employment discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

A pressrelease that announced the lawsuit notes the reversal of the Affordable CareAct policy violates the Administrative Procedures Act by being contraryto law and arbitrary and capricious.

I have experiencedfeeling like a doctor doesnt care if I live or die which is justshameful, said Lazor in the press release. No one should be denied life-saving health care or bediscriminated against the way I have simply because of who they are. I hopethat sharing my story can help others understand that transgender people arewho we are, and we deserve to be treated fairly under the law.

Equality California ExecutiveDirector Rick Chavez Zbur added rippinghealthcare away from millions of Americans is wrong; to do so in the middle ofa global health crisis is just plain evil.

As long as President Trump keeps attacking transgender people like Darren and other LGBTQ+ Equality California members simply because of who they are, well keep fighting the Administration in court, he said.

The Human Rights Campaign and the D.C.-based law firm Baker Hostetler have filed a separate lawsuit against the policys rescission in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of two trans women of color. Lambda Legal has also challenged the Trump administrations decision in federal court.

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Trump administration sued again over rescission of transgender health care protections - Washington Blade

4th resident at Universal Health Care of Brunswick dies from COVID-19 – WWAY NewsChannel 3

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BOLIVIA, NC (WWAY) Brunswick County Health Services is reporting the death of an eighth county resident associated to the novel coronavirus.

The person was a resident at the Universal Health Care of Brunswick congregate living facility who received a positive test result for COVID-19. According to heath officials, the person was considered a person at high risk for severe illness as they were over the age of 65 and had underlying medical conditions.

This is the fourth positive resident at the congregate care facility to COVID-19 related death.

It is difficult to hear that we have lost another county resident to this virus, and we extend our condolences to those affected by this loss, Chairman Frank Williams said.

As of July 10, the county says there are 751 positive cases of COVID-19 among county residents (354 considered recovered, 377 isolating at 304 households, 12 hospitalized, 8 deaths) and 14 cases among non-residents (1 isolating in county, 8 considered recovered, 3 transferred monitoring to home county, 2 deaths).

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4th resident at Universal Health Care of Brunswick dies from COVID-19 - WWAY NewsChannel 3

Kelly Looks to Extend Paid Leave to Health-Care Workers – businessjournaldaily.com

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WASHINGTON, D.C. U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly introduced legislation Thursday that would extend paid leave to health-care workers and offer liability protections to hospitals and other medical providers from certain lawsuits during the COVID-19 emergency declaration.

When the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act was enacted, it exempted hospitals and other health-care facilities from the requirement to offer paid leave to health-care workers because the extent to which the pandemic would affect thehealth system was not yet known and the country needed its health-care workers on the job, according to a news release from Kellys office announcing the new legislation.

Kellys legislation House Resolution 7538, the Essential Workforce Parity Act would provide leave to health-care workers who contract COVID-19, the cost for which is eligible for reimbursement by the federal government under FFCRA. In addition, it would also offer specific targeted legal protections to health-care providers while they grapple with the complexity of treating COVID-19 patients.

Our doctors and nurses are on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic risking their own health to treat the worst cases of COVID-19,said Kelly, R-16 Pa.The Essential Workforce Parity Act will guarantee that our health care heroes are treated fairly if they get sick while also ensuring their primary focus can be on helping patients, not fighting lawsuits.

The legislation received support in whole or in part from two key organizations, the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania and the Health Coalition on Liability Access.

Pennsylvania hospitals first priority is the safety of health-care workers and the patients they treat. This is especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Andy Carter, president and CEO of HAP. During these difficult times where the situation and guidance is constantly changing we must allow health-care workers and facilities to focus on caring for every patient who needs care rather than worrying about the threat of meritless lawsuits.

HCLA specifically endorsed Section 3 of H.R. 7538. The limited and targeted protection from liability provided by Section 3 will help ensure that health-care professionals and facilities on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic can focus on helping patients without fear of getting drawn into unwarranted lawsuits, the organization said in a letter.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.

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Kelly Looks to Extend Paid Leave to Health-Care Workers - businessjournaldaily.com

Wallingford health care provider begins using new shoe disinfection technology amid pandemic – New Haven Register

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Gaylord Specialty Healthcare announced this week that it had begun using a new technology from Patho3Gen Solutions to disinfect shoes during the pandemic. Here, Kristelle Caslangen, RN, uses the device.

Gaylord Specialty Healthcare announced this week that it had begun using a new technology from Patho3Gen Solutions to disinfect shoes during the pandemic. Here, Kristelle Caslangen, RN, uses the device.

Gaylord Specialty Healthcare announced this week that it had begun using a new technology from Patho3Gen Solutions to disinfect shoes during the pandemic. Here, Kristelle Caslangen, RN, uses the device.

Gaylord Specialty Healthcare announced this week that it had begun using a new technology from Patho3Gen Solutions to disinfect shoes during the pandemic. Here, Kristelle Caslangen, RN, uses the device.

Wallingford health care provider begins using new shoe disinfection technology amid pandemic

WALLINGFORD Gaylord Specialty Healthcare announced this week that it had begun using a new technology to disinfect peoples shoes, as it takes further safety measures amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Officials said the organization was the first in New England to implement UVZone shoe disinfection technology from Florida-based PathO3Gen Solutions as part of an ongoing effort to protect patient and staff safety amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sanitation system uses an exclusive and multi-patented combination of Ozone and UVC light to eliminate the vast majority of pathogens, including any coronavirus residue on footwear in eight seconds, Gaylord officials said.

It was paid for through a $35,000 grant from The Greater New Haven COVID-19 Community Fund, a joint effort from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and the United Way, officials said.

With the CDC recommendation that all persons disinfect shoe soles before walking out of areas with COVID-19 patients, obtaining the best form of protection for our staff and patients was a priority for Gaylord, said Dr. Stephen Holland, chief medical officer of Gaylord Specialty Healthcare. We are appreciative to the Greater New Haven COVID-19 Community Fund for making this a reality.

In the announcement, PathO3Gen Solutions said it was pleased to see its product put to use.

The goal of PathO3Gen Solutions is to prevent infections and save lives by creating cleaner and safer environments. There is nothing more rewarding for us than seeing our UVZone shoe disinfection technology on the ground, when and where it really matters the most, said Scott Beal, chief operating officer of PathO3Gen Solutions.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com

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Health insurers call on Congress to provide new funding for coverage amid pandemic | TheHill – The Hill

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Health insurance companies are calling on Congress to provide more funding to help people keep coverage, citing the more than 44 million who have filed for unemployment since the coronavirus crisis started.

The two main health insurance lobbying groups, Americas Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, wrote a letter to congressional leaders on Friday making a range of requests for the next coronavirus response package, expected later this month.

The adoption of each of these recommendations is critical to assuring that health insurance providers are able to deliver coverage that is reliable and high value in all markets, the letter states.

Health insurershave benefited financially from the cancellation of costly elective procedures during the coronavirus pandemic, which they have no longer had to pay for. Theyargue they are not asking for direct financial assistance for themselves, unlike many other industries, but for support to help people keep insurance. That assistance would eventually flow up to health insurers as well.

The recommendations include increasing government subsidies under the Affordable Care Act that help people afford their premiums, and providing financial assistance to employers to help them keep employer-sponsored health coverage for their workers.

A possibly more politically palatable recommendation, which is also included in the letter, is for the government to pick up the full cost to workers who lose their jobs through a program called COBRA. That program allows people who lose their jobs to keep the health insurance that the job provided, but it is usually very expensive for workers, unless the government steps in to pay the cost.

Discussions on that front have been complicated, however, by a partisan dispute in Congress overpotentialrestrictions on funds going to plans that cover abortions.

Progressives such as Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersTrump says Biden has been 'brainwashed': 'He's been taken over by the radical left' Ex-Sanders campaign manager talks unity efforts with Biden backers The Hill's Campaign Report: Florida's coronavirus surge raises questions about GOP convention MORE (I-Vt.) have criticized the COBRA proposal. The move would allow health insurance corporations [to] make massive profits off the plan, Sanders wrote in a Politico op-ed in April.

Sanders and other progressives have instead proposed expanding government programs like Medicare to cover those who become uninsured due to the coronavirus economic crisis. But those proposals will go nowhere with Republicans, meaning COBRA has a better chance of the bipartisan support needed for passage.

On the key issue of coronavirus testing, insurers are calling for additional federal funding to cover testing and help workplaces and people go back to work. The Trump administration issued guidance last month saying that insurers do not have to cover surveillance testing at workplaces, a decision insurers support, but that congressional Democrats blasted as letting the companies off the hook and skirting the requirements Congress set in previous response packages.

In the letter Friday, insurers said Congress should provide additional funding to cover that testing.

We know that Americans are anxious to maintain their health coverage, keep that coverage stable, ensure access to widespread and reliable testing, and ensure the resources needed to overcome COVID-19,they said.

Asked whether insurers need action from Congress given their financial benefits from the cancellation of elective procedures, Kristine Grow, a spokeswoman for AHIP, wrote in an email that it is too soon to know what the real financial impact of the virus will be.

We arent through this crisis yet, she added. And as elective and nonurgent procedures resume, those procedures must be paid for. It is possible that the care required will be more complex and costly because care and treatment were delayed."

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Health insurers call on Congress to provide new funding for coverage amid pandemic | TheHill - The Hill

The ‘new normal’ in health care needs to go beyond clinical care – STAT

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This is an extraordinarily difficult time to be a physician. As the leaders of state medical societies and board members of The Physicians Foundation, we represent primary care physicians and specialists across the country, in blue and red states. Weve witnessed the Covid-19 crisis cost hundreds of thousands of lives and endanger many of our colleagues.

In the midst of this deadly pandemic, the U.S. health delivery system is facing its own economic instability. To an unprecedented degree, physician practices are on the brink of collapse, with patients staying home and telehealth reimbursements plagued by delays and other challenges. Hospitals, too, are teetering financially, laying off physicians or cutting their salaries.

And this is just the beginning.

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Covid-19 is a multidimensional health crisis. In Louisiana, for example, five parishes account for 56% of Covid deaths (as of June 16) and 78% of housing evictions. How can we ask our sick patients to shelter in place if they have no shelter?

In time, patients will return to their doctors offices and hospitals for routine checkups, deferred elective procedures, prescription refills, and more. But they will do so with their health compromised even if they never had Covid-19 presenting with diabetes, heart disease, mental health, and other conditions made worse by lost jobs and the struggle to afford food or rent. This will have a massive impact on physicians practices as they accept greater economic and physical risk and struggle with new practice challenges.

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Over the past decade, state and federal governments, health insurance companies, health care delivery systems, and physicians have struggled over who should bear the cost when patients get sick. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and private insurance companies have increasingly shifted this risk to physicians, holding physicians responsible for patients health through quality measures and financial rewards and penalties.

The problem is that these measures, incentives, and risk models focus almost entirely on clinical care. Yet social and environmental factors, such as access to healthy food, safe housing, and other social determinants of health, drive 70% of health outcomes.

And that was before Covid-19. How does our notion of risk change when more than 36 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits in the past three months and nearly one-quarter of U.S. households are reporting that the food we bought just didnt last, and we didnt have money to get more?

Millions of patients will show up in clinics exhibiting the physical toll of skipping meals to feed their children. They will have made impossible tradeoffs between refilling their heart medicine or buying food. They will carry the stress of spending weeks trying and failing to find a job as bills pile up and they fear losing their homes as the rent or mortgage goes unpaid and eviction bans get lifted.

The way that CMS and health plans quantify and allocate risk to physicians is simply irrelevant in the face of our countrys post-Covid-19 realities. It is clear that we cannot return to normal.

Now is time to do what we should have done long ago: make CMS and private insurers account for the realities of patients lives in risk models, quality measures, and financial incentives.

Health care providers capture their patients disease burdens and account for that risk through billing and diagnosis codes. Without these codes, a condition cannot be documented or factored into risk models that influence the type of care patients receive and how physicians get reimbursed. Nearly overnight, CMS implemented codes so it could pay physicians to diagnose and treat Covid-19 and account for the risk of complications.

If CMS can do this, surely it can do the same for patients living in a food desert or those who have recently been evicted. A patient with heart disease who is also food insecure costs $5,144 more per year to care for on average than a patient who is not food insecure. Right now, that risk and cost which will only grow in Covid-19s wake is not factored into risk-adjusted payments to physicians. If it were, it could arm practices with the resources they need to hire staff or partner with others to connect patients to community resources, like healthy meal delivery programs or affordable housing.

We must also ensure that patients have access to quality health care and the basics they need to be healthy. CMS created the medical loss ratio (MLR) as an incentive for insurance companies to spend dollars on medical care not on administrative costs which is especially important now that so many physician practices are struggling to stay open and provide care for their patients.

At the same time, CMS must adjust the medical loss ratio to create incentives for health insurance plans to invest in the health of their members. Currently, if an insurer buys healthy food for a patient with diabetes, it counts as an administrative cost and the insurer is penalized even though buying that food is good for patients and for their physicians, who bear the economic risk of managing their disease.

Before Covid-19, CMS proposed a new rule that would lift this penalty for Medicare Advantage plans, incentivizing them to invest in these supplemental benefits (like healthy meals or transportation to the grocery store) for their chronically ill members. By extending this rule to all insurance plans and members, CMS would reward insurers for investing in clinical care and unlocking additional dollars to help patients get and stay healthy, thereby avoiding huge costs to the health care system. States could do the same by activating their departments of insurance to make similar changes.

Covid-19 has caused enormous suffering for Americans while shaking the foundations of our health care delivery system. In the midst of all this, the Physicians Foundation sees a path forward to a better health care system one that recognizes the realities of patients lives and rewards and invests in health. We cannot be afraid to seize this opportunity to improve health outcomes and our health care system.

Michael Darrouzet is the CEO of the Texas Medical Association. Jennifer Hanscom is the executive director and CEO of the Washington State Medical Association. Philip Schuh is the executive vice president and CFO of the Medical Society of the State of New York. All are board members of The Physicians Foundation.

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The 'new normal' in health care needs to go beyond clinical care - STAT

Georgia nurse highlighted by InStyle Magazine as a health care worker saving the day – Atlanta Journal Constitution

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Every year,InStyle magazine recognizes change makers and groundbreaking women in an annual list. Over the years, the list has included people likeSerena Williams, Nancy Pelosi, Janelle Mone and many others.

But this year, the list looks a little different. In its August issue, InStyle recognized health care workers across the countrywho are saving the day, including a nurse here in Georgia.

RELATED:How does asthma affect COVID-19 severity? New research weighs in

From Alabama to Wyoming and everywhere in between,InStyle spoke to 50 health-care professionals across the country about not only what theyve done in these extraordinary times, but who they are as women, shining a light on the people behind the PPE, according to the magazine.

Santana Sims, an Atlanta-based registered nurse, was included on the list of 50 female front-line workers who have been combating the coronavirus.

Sims co-founded the nonprofitNurses Support 911 to create mentorships and events to care for health care workers.

No matter what type of day I've had, no matter what type of patients I've had to take care of, no matter how tired I am or how bad my feet hurt, the next day I'm going to come back to give my all and save lives, Sims told InStyle.

RELATED:WHO now says theres emerging evidence of airborne transmission of coronavirus

Read more about Sims and the womenfeatured on the list here.

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Georgia nurse highlighted by InStyle Magazine as a health care worker saving the day - Atlanta Journal Constitution

Bayside Corners: Contrast and compare the French and U.S. healthcare experience – Mad River Union

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Its a slow Bayside news week, so I thought Id share a personal tale from some Bayside residents.

My husband Tom and I went out for our first restaurant meal together since early March. El Chipotle, in the Sunny Brae Center, is open every day for dine-in lunch and dinner. It has a sheltered outside patio, a huge indoor space, all of the recommended COVID precautions, and it felt very safe. What a small special pleasure in this strange time.

That got me thinking about things that we take for granted. This time last year, Tom and I were headed to southern France for a vacation with family. Three days in, on a very quiet Sunday morning in a small town along the Canal du Midi, Tom began feeling unwell... short of breath, pain in his upper arm. I was able to call Frances version of 911 and a short time later, an ambulance arrived, with a doctor (!), nurse technician and driver, and a second back-up vehicle.

Tests performed on site told them that he should go straight to hospital, and we were given the option of the closest, smaller hospital, or larger facility about 30 minutes away. We chose the latter.

Long story short, Tom was in various health care facilities for the next six weeks. He spent the first nine days at a hospital in Carcassonne. They did the angiography and all of the necessary tests so he could be assessed for surgery. He felt perfectly well during all of this time (in the U.S., Im sure he would have been discharged), but the French doctors wanted him supervised.

We were sent by medical taxi to consult with the cardiac surgeon and then transferred to a huge university hospital with a cardiac specialty unit in Toulouse, where he spent two weeks. He had quadruple bypass surgery, was five days in Cardiac ICU and then a regular cardiac unit. He was then transferred by medical taxi to a rehab facility where he spent another two weeks (they wanted him to stay a full month, but we needed to get home).

Throughout all this I stayed nearby and visited every day (by bus and metro) and, toward the end, on the weekends, we went out for excursions in the beautiful city of Toulouse. By this time, Tom was easily able to walk many miles a day, navigate stairs, and so on.

So what was so unusual about all this? Almost everything.

First, continuity of care. When the emergency occurred I contacted our medical provider and insurances at home. But I couldnt get any information. No one could tell me what would happen if I transferred Tom back to the U.S. for care. Where should we go? How would the surgery get authorized and scheduled? When could it be done? What would it cost?

That lack of clarity led us to stay in France where all of this was absolutely seamless. The French doctors themselves urged us to stay as they didnt trust this aspect of the U.S. system.

Second, the style of care. I was immediately struck by the difference in how medical staff interacted with patients. There was a lot less time spent looking at computer screens and entering information. Patients were encouraged to move around as much as they were able. It was common to see patients toting IV poles down in the cafeteria with family.

When I later saw Toms medical records, I was astonished at how concise and clear they were. When I once requested my own records from a two-hour $3,500 ER visit here at home, I received about 30 pages of gobbledly-gook.

Third, the cost. I was able to put the cost of the first nine days stay on a credit card while I sorted out the details. Would your credit card cover that in the U.S.?

We have long kept an emergency travel medical policy, renewed annually, which covers emergency medical evacuation (which could have been used in this case) or treatment. (Frequent travelers out there, I strongly recommend such policies which are incredibly cost-effective and the staff at ours was amazing in working with us to cover costs and get us home safely.)

When all was said and done, the total cost of all of Toms care, from ambulance to diagnosis to transfer to major surgery to rehab (six weeks in all) was less than $50,000.

The care was state-of-the-art. There was no process of authorizing and tracking every procedure, lab test and medication. If the doctors felt it necessary, it happened, and it was included in a flat daily rate for the level of care. The fee schedule for the first hospital was one half-page long.

When we were ready to go home, our insurance covered first class flights to San Francisco. The cost for those two tickets for a half-day plane ride was over $32,000!

It really makes me wonder about priorities... and to realize how lucky we were that Toms emergency happened in France... even if we did miss out on our vacation.

This column is normally about Bayside news (or the activities of Bayside residents). Got something to share? Contact bayside[emailprotected] or (707) 599.3192.

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Bayside Corners: Contrast and compare the French and U.S. healthcare experience - Mad River Union

July 16 Police Procession to Honor Hospital, Healthcare Workers During Pandemic – Signals AZ

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By Staff | on July 10, 2020

The Prescott Valley Police Department will participate in an emergency vehicle procession Honoring Our Super Heroes event with 12 other local agencies on Thursday, July 16 beginning at 10 a.m. The procession will include 13 Quad City first responding agencies with lights and sirens activated.

The event, spearheaded by the Northern Arizona VA Healthcare System, will recognize the relationships between local communities hospitals and front-line healthcare staff who have been battling the Covid-19 pandemic. The VA Healthcare System Police Service has invited area first responders to pay tribute to these heroes with the emergency vehicle procession at all three medical centers The Northern Arizona VA Hospital and Yavapai Regional Medical Centers West in Prescott and East in Prescott Valley.

The healthcare providers in our hospitals and clinics have displayed an unwavering dedication to provide care and treatment for our patients throughout this difficult time. The first responders representing their respective agencies in this event wish to show our gratitude, VA Chief of Police Brian Schuman said.

Participating agencies include the Prescott Veterans Affairs Police Department; Prescott Police Department; Prescott Valley Police Department; Yavapai County Sheriffs Office; Yavapai College Police Department; Chino Valley Police Department; Prescott Fire Department; Central Arizona Fire Department; Life Line Ambulance Services, Inc.; Yavapai Prescott Tribal Police Department; Arizona Department of Public Safety; Arizona Fish and Game; and United States National Forest Service Fire.

The procession on July 16 will stage at 9:30 a.m. at the Findlay Toyota Center parking lot in Prescott Valley and visit YRMC East before traveling to Prescott. Traffic control will be provided by the Prescott Valley and Prescott Police Departments, and the VA Police while on VA property. Police ask that residents not be alarmed at the emergency lights and sirens while this event is taking place, and exercise caution and patience as this procession honors the work and sacrifices of our health care professionals and first responders during the Covid-19 pandemic.

For more information on the procession in Prescott Valley, please contact Prescott Valley Police Department at 928-772-9261.

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July 16 Police Procession to Honor Hospital, Healthcare Workers During Pandemic - Signals AZ

Patients want to continue using telehealth even after pandemic ends – Healthcare Finance News

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Patients have embraced virtual care and telehealth at very high rates as a result of COVID-19, and nine out of 10 said the quality of care was as good as or better than before, according to findings of a global Accenture survey of 2,700 oncology, cardiology and immunology patients.Sixty percent said that, based on their experience during the pandemic, they want to use technology more for communicating with healthcare providers and managing their conditions in the future.The survey was conducted in May across China, France, Germany, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. at a time when all participating countries were under some degree of government restrictions as a result of the global pandemic.

WHAT'S THE IMPACT?As restrictions came into effect, patients faced difficult choices about whether and how to continue their treatments. Many healthcare providers cancelled appointments, and transportation options were shut down. Patients were afraid to risk exposure to COVID-19 by going to their healthcare providers for regular treatment, and as many as 70% deferred or cancelled at least some elements of their treatment.

But nearly half of all patients also started getting some treatment at home instead of going to their provider's office, and they began using virtual telehealth tools such as video conference calls, online chat and apps. Sixty-three percent of those who used video conferencing said it was very good or excellent an impressive response given 70% were using video conferencing for treatment for the first time. By using technology to support communication and care, providers were largely able to maintain or even improve on the patient experience.

Forty-seven percent of respondents said they received better, more personalized responses; 41% said responses were quicker;and 40% said it was more convenient to access care through new communications channels.Also, overall trust in the healthcare system has increased. Sixty percent of patients surveyed said their trust in healthcare providers has increased, and 45% said their trust in pharmaceutical and medical device companies has increased.

Worryingly, many clinical trials were disrupted by COVID-19. Seventy-seven percent of patients said their clinical trials were suspended or delayed, which could have an effect on the speed with which new treatments come to market.But for trials that continued, the use of telehealth was critical for consultations, treatment and monitoring. Case in point: 61% of patients whose trials continued used some form of virtual communication or care.

Patients said they want to be consulted more, but they are currently far from the center of the clinical-trial-design process. As decisions were being made on how to modify clinical trials due to COVID-19, only 14% of surveyed patients were asked about what changes would work for them. This held true across all therapeutic areas and geographies.

THE LARGER TREND

For insurers to continue covering telehealth after the public health emergency ends, policymakers should allow for flexibility in benefit designs, America's Health Insurance Plans said this week.

Telehealth visits should also be clinically comparable to in-person care and be countedtoward network adequacy requirements, risk adjustment calculations and quality measurement, the group said.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma said Thursday morning that the agency is doing what it can to maintain telehealth in the healthcare system, for which the Trump Administration has expressed support.

Regulatory barriers to telehealth access include restrictions around geography, originating sites and state licensure requirements.

Federal policymakers have enacted more than 30 changes to enable greater access to telehealth, and,in a June hearing, members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions examined how many of those changes should be made permanent and how to make sure the most vulnerable won't get left behind.

Twitter:@JELagasseEmail the writer:jeff.lagasse@himssmedia.com

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Patients want to continue using telehealth even after pandemic ends - Healthcare Finance News

Prime Healthcare Hospitals Named Among the Nation’s 100 Top Hospitals by IBM Watson Health, Five Receive Everest Award – GlobeNewswire

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Ontario, Calif., July 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Six Prime Healthcare hospitals have been named to the Fortune/IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals list, which recognizes the top performing hospitals in the nation. With this years recognition, Prime Healthcare hospitals have ranked among the nations 100 Top Hospitals 53 times.

Five of the six hospitals honored this year have received an Everest Award, which recognizes hospitals that have earned the 100 Top Hospitals designation and ranked among the top 100 hospitals in the nation for rate-of-improvement during a five-year period.

The six Prime Healthcare hospitals on this list demonstrate a relentless commitment to high value, patient-centered care and innovation, said Ekta Punwani, Leader, 100 Top Hospitals Program. Year over year, Prime Healthcares staff, nurses and physicians demonstrate their focus on providing the highest-quality and safest care that results in this national recognition. This year, unlike any other, the COVID-19 crisis will be a catalyst for reinvention, and we believe these top performing Prime hospitals are positioned to emerge stronger and smarter out of this crisis.

East Liverpool City Hospital in East Liverpool, OH, is a three-time 100 Top Hospital honoree and recipient of the Everest Award for the third year in a row. Mission Regional Medical Center in Mission, TX; Saint Marys Regional Medical Center in Reno, NV; Providence Medical Center in Kansas City, KS and St. Marys Medical Center in Blue Springs, MO also received the Everest Award. Sherman Oaks Hospital in Sherman Oaks, CA, is a four-time 100 Top Hospital honoree.

The Everest award is a remarkable recognition and for five of our hospitals to earn this award speaks to the unwavering dedication to service excellence and patient centered care of our staff and physicians,said Sunny Bhatia, MD, Chief Medical Officer for Prime Healthcare. Many of these hospitals have been transformed as members of Prime, and this national recognition reflects our model and mission of saving hospitals and ensuring they deliver the highest quality of care to their communities. This mission has been especially critical during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are committed to emerging better and stronger and grateful to all those that commit themselves to providing exceptional care.

Compared to similar hospitals, the hospitals included on the list had better results on performance indicators intended to measure clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, patient experience and financial health.

The outcomes include survival rates, patient complications, healthcare-associated infections, 30-day mortality and 30-day hospital-wide readmission rates, length of stay, throughput in emergency rooms, inpatient expenses, profitability, and ratings from patients.

Performance by these hospitals, when extrapolated to all Medicare inpatients, could result in:

To determine the hospitals included on the Fortune/IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals list, IBM Watson Health researchers evaluated 3,134 short-term, acute care, non-federal U.S. hospitals.

All research was based on the following public data sets: Medicare cost reports, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MEDPAR) data, and core measures and patient satisfaction data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare website.

About the IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals Program

The IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals Program's annual studies result in the Fortune/IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals list, IBM Watson Health 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals list and IBM Watson Health 15 Top Health Systems list. Organizations do not apply or pay for this honor or pay to promote their award. Award-winning hospitals and health systems serve as a model of excellence for the industry. Visit http://www.100tophospitals.com/ for more information.

About Prime Healthcare

Prime Healthcare is an award-winning national hospital system with 45 acute-care hospitals and more than 300 outpatient locations providing nearly 40,000 jobs in 14 states. Fifteen of the hospitals are not-for-profit and members of the Prime Healthcare Foundation, a 501(c)3 public charity. Based in California and one of the largest hospital systems in the country, Prime Healthcare is committed to ensuring access to quality healthcare. Prime Healthcare and its hospitals have been recognized as among the "100 Top Hospitals" in the nation 53 times and among the "15 Top Health Systems" three times. For more information, please visit http://www.primehealthcare.com.

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Prime Healthcare Hospitals Named Among the Nation's 100 Top Hospitals by IBM Watson Health, Five Receive Everest Award - GlobeNewswire

Health-care unions considering political action over Ontarios emergency act – The Globe and Mail

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Unions representing Ontarios health care workers say theyre consulting with their memberships about taking political action in response to the province potentially extending its emergency powers.

The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, a division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said that under the emergency orders, their collective bargaining agreement with the province is suspended.

The Progressive Conservative government introduced a bill earlier this week that would allow the province to keep some emergency measures in place in the months ahead.

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Michael Hurley, president of the OCHU, said that while that was acceptable in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, its now a detriment to health care workers.

The act makes it clear that the emergency is over thats explicit in the legislation, Mr. Hurley said. The case count in Ontario has dropped dramatically. The number of cases is perhaps a fifth of what it was in March when the emergency was declared.

As of Friday, there were 117 patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Ontario, down from a peak of 1,043 in March. There were 4,309 active cases in the province, according to the Ontario government.

Mr. Hurley said that with the emergency orders in place, nurses and other care workers can have their shifts changed, be moved from site to site or have vacation requests denied. He also pointed out that the act applies to the entire province, but many public-health units are out of an emergency situation.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said on Friday that 30 of the provinces 34 public-health units every region except Peel, York, Toronto and Windsor-Essex are reporting five or fewer new cases, with 17 of them reporting no new cases at all.

The health care worker unions said they will have meetings with executive board members, stewards and members over the weekend and on Monday to decide on a course of action by Tuesday. Options available to the membership range from wearing stickers to work, organizing a rally or even an interruption of work.

What is the most painful thing of this is that no one wants to turn their attention from providing patient care to having to defend some basic workplace rights, Mr. Hurley said. Thats the last thing anyone wants to do, so were hoping that the government reconsiders its position.

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The union also said the Ontario government announced its plans to extend the act without consulting them.

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Health-care unions considering political action over Ontarios emergency act - The Globe and Mail

Trump Health Secretary Says US Healthcare Workers ‘Don’t Get Infected’ With Covid-19 (94,000 Have Contracted the Virus) – Common Dreams

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Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Tuesday falsely claimed that healthcare workers "don't get infected" with Covid-19 "because they take appropriate precautions" as he attempted to make the case for reopening schools in the falleven with coronavirus cases surging across the United States.

"If we don't have enough PPE for the healthcare workers on the front lines, how can we possibly have enough PPE for all of the country's teachers to take the same precautions?" Sarah Karlin-Smith, Pink Sheet

"There's no reason we can't do any of this," Azar, a former pharmaceutical lobbyist and executive, said during an event at the White House. "We have healthcare settings. We have healthcare workers, they don't get infected because they take appropriate precautions. They engage in social distancing, they wear facial covering, they use good personal hygiene. This can work, you can do all of this. There's no reason schools have to be in any way any different."

In addition to noting that Azar's claim about healthcare workers not getting infected is wildly falseaccording to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 94,000 healthcare workers have contracted Covid-19 and at least 500 have diedmedical professionals rejected the argument that precautionary measures taken in healthcare settings can easily be replicated in the nation's schools.

"We are trained in infection control and have used [personal protective equipment] for years," tweeted Prasad Jallepalli, MD, a professor at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. "This is almost as dumb as the 'give teachers guns' proposal."

Sarah Karlin-Smith, a reporter with Pink Sheet, asked: "If we don't have enough PPE for the healthcare workers on the front lines, how can we possibly have enough PPE for all of the country's teachers to take the same precautions?"

Watch Azar's remarks:

In response to widespread criticism of Azar's comments, HHS spokesperson Michael Caputo tweeted that the secretary "is keenly aware of and grateful for the sacrifices #HealthcareHeroes have been making throughout this pandemic" and added that it would be "foolish" to suggest he "doesn't believe these warriors get sick and die."

Kaiser Health News and The Guardian, in a collaborative investigation titled "Lost on the Frontline," identified more than 760 healthcare workers who have likely died of Covid-19 in the U.S.a death toll significantly higher than the CDC's official count.

"In some states, medical personnel account for as many as 20% of known coronavirus cases. They tend to patients in hospitals, treating them, serving them food, and cleaning their rooms. Others at risk work in nursing homes or are employed as home health aides," the outlets reported. "Some cases are shrouded in secrecy... Many hospitals have been overwhelmed and workers sometimes have lacked protective equipment or suffer from underlying health conditions that make them vulnerable to the highly infectious virus."

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Trump Health Secretary Says US Healthcare Workers 'Don't Get Infected' With Covid-19 (94,000 Have Contracted the Virus) - Common Dreams

Hyundai Donates Over 20000 Face Masks to Montgomery Area Healthcare Providers and Community – Alabama News Network

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Posted: Jul 10, 2020 10:48 AM CDT

Updated: Jul 10, 2020 2:25 PM CDT

by Alabama News Network Staff

Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama (HMMA) has donated 20,000 face masks to the Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency (EMA), as well as 400 acrylic face shields to Montgomery area health care providers.

HMMA donated 20,000 form-fitting, washable fabric face masks to the Montgomery County EMA for community distribution via the Montgomery city council and the Montgomery county commission. Each city councilor will make the masks available for community events, neighborhood associations, and citizen requests.

Additionally, 200 acrylic face shields were donated to Baptist Health and 200 were donated to Jackson Hospital. With a national shortage of face masks available for medical personnel, plastic face shields serve as an extra layer of protection for doctors and nurses wearing surgical or fabric face masks.

Together, we will come out of this crisis stronger than ever, said Robert Burns, HMMA vice president HR & administration. While navigating the impact of COVID-19 , team member safety has been a top priority in getting us back on our feet producing high quality vehicles for the entire North American market . We feel it is our duty to help get our home community of Montgomery, which has been so severely impacted, back on its feet as well.

Montgomery has always been stronger together, and public-private partnerships with community stakeholders like HMMA are the bedrock of our success, said Montgomery Mayor Steven L. Reed. These relationships will be integral in building out our vision for a better Montgomery in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through this donation, Hyundai again demonstrates its commitment to our people. We commend HMMAs leadership and hardworking team members for standing steadfast with our city as we work to stop the spread of COVID-19. We cannot thank them enough for another outpouring of generosity with the donation of 20,000 masks to those in need in Montgomery and central Alabama.

Montgomery Emergency Management Agency humbly thanks our continued HMMA partnership as our Montgomery Community mitigates the spread of COVID-19, said Christina Thornton, Montgomery County EMA director. The more we come together the stronger our Montgomery will be. Please help stop the spread and Mask-Up!

We are so grateful for Hyundai Motor Manufacturing of Alabama for recognizing the continued need to promote precautionary masking in our community, said Tommy McKinnon, Baptist Health vice president of community engagement.

We are equally appreciative of HMMAs contribution of protective face shields to our hospitals, which will greatly help with ongoing personal protective equipment needs.

Earlier this year HMMA donated 450 box lunches to Montgomery area front line health providers,1,000 surgical masks to the Alabama Dental Association and 10,000 COVID-19 tests to Montgomery and surrounding counties to support drive through testing in Alabama.

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Hyundai Donates Over 20000 Face Masks to Montgomery Area Healthcare Providers and Community - Alabama News Network

Scores forecast effects of mutations in autism gene – Spectrum

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Mutation rating: Scores may help researchers identify changes in the gene PTEN most likely to play a role in autism.

CRAFTSCI / Science Photo Library

A new analysis links individual mutations in a gene called PTEN to a persons odds of having autism, cancer or other conditions1. The findings may help clinicians and researchers predict the effects of various mutations in the gene.

PTEN controls cell growth and regulates the strength of connections between neurons. Mutations in the gene are associated with a variety of conditions, including autism, macrocephaly (enlarged head size), benign tumors and several types of cancer. It is still unclear how different mutations cause such varied effects.

Scientists cannot easily predict the consequences of a PTEN mutation based on its type whether it involves a single amino acid change or a larger interruption to the gene, for example or its impact on the protein the gene encodes. Researchers have developed methods to examine the molecular effects of PTEN mutations within cells in a dish, but these approaches do not link mutations to specific conditions in people.

In the new analysis, the researchers probed the effects of 7,657 PTEN mutations, representing all possible changes to each amino acid in the genes sequence. They built on the findings from a previous study in which they used yeast cells to calculate a fitness score for 7,244 PTEN mutations2. They combined this dataset with another in which researchers had given an abundance score to 4,112 PTEN mutations based on how those mutations affect protein levels in human cells in a dish3.

The team used machine learning on the combined dataset to calculate abundance and fitness scores for mutations that lacked them. They then compared these scores with data they gathered from 421 people with PTEN mutations 165 controls and 256 people with a PTEN-related condition, such as autism, developmental delay, intellectual disability, macrocephaly, or benign or malignant tumors.

People with the largest head size tend to have mutations with the lowest fitness and abundance scores, the researchers reported in June in the American Journal of Human Genetics. Similarly, low scores track with having PTEN-related conditions that are severe or appear at a young age.

By comparing mutations in individuals with PTEN-linked traits and those in controls, the researchers also found that fitness scores can predict whether a mutation is likely to lead to a PTEN-related condition.

Together, these findings suggest that abundance and fitness scores may help predict the consequences of PTEN mutations, the researchers say.

The team also split single amino acid changes into three classes based on the severity of their effects on protein function and abundance.

The most severe mutations are linked to a higher likelihood of cancer diagnosis by age 35 compared with the least severe mutations, the researchers found. Greater severity also tracks with an increased likelihood of tumor-like growths.

However, the severity of the variants effects is not tied to a persons likelihood of having autism or developmental delay. This suggests that even a small decrease in PTEN activity may be enough to significantly increase the odds of having a neurodevelopmental condition, the researchers say.

The analysis may help tease apart PTEN mutations different effects, the researchers say. It may also help researchers identify the mutations most likely to play a role in autism and prioritize them for further research.

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Scores forecast effects of mutations in autism gene - Spectrum

Herd Immunity Is A Distant Dream- Antibodies May Disappear From An Individual’s Body Within Weeks – Inventiva

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It will take around five months for the US, 22 months for the UK, and about one year in Italy for the people to attain herd immunity.

Now if you are completely oblivious to the fact of what herd immunity is, let us help you out. When a persons immune system is attacked with an unknown virus, the antibody production starts at a mass level. When the person recovers from the ailment, and immunity is developed known as the herd immunity. So for the herd immunity to develop as a whole, in a population of about 100 percent, about 80 percent of people have to be attacked with the same virus so that they can produce rapid antibodies.

The novel coronavirus continues to spread at an alarming speed and has infected near 12 million individuals. There is, while the pros are studying more about the operation of the contagion with each day. The fresh price of research has suggested that achieving a level of herd immunity among the crowd can be pretty difficult to attain in a few weeks or even months. While there is an ongoing debate going on among experts, most of them are split about the decision or the time limit as to when shall herd immunity be the only option among crowds. It is surely an achievable foot but it will take time to happen as more and more population are suspected to be tested as positive.

In a study performed in Belgium, scientists assessed the feasibility of creating herd resistance in a population without burdening the ICUs. The investigators used an online tool out of about-the-curve. Net along with also the SIR (Susceptible-Infected-Recovered) version for the spread of illness to estimate that without burdening the ICUs, it might take about 5 weeks to the US, 22 weeks to the UK and roughly a year for Italy to grow herd immunity.

The team works on human genetics, bioinformatics, AI, and machine learning. Besides, he teaches bioinformatics focusing on approaches in biology.

The UK had suggested the idea of herd immunity when the number of cases improved in the nation, but there was a lockdown set in place. The research is still in development and peers are asked to review it before it can be sent to the officials.

Its thought that herd immunity could be achieved for specific ailments when most cases have grown immune and 40 percent of the populace is infected with the disease. But in the majority of cases at 80 to 90 percent of the populace should grow immunity (through vaccination or becoming infected) to halt the illness from spreading farther. Experts around the globe hoped to go in effect to allow its contagion, for the novel coronavirus.

In a recent study which is conducted in Spain, about only 5% of the people have developed protective antibodies for the novel coronavirus. But this is completely on the papers and not published yet. Since the figures were drawn on a previously based study, scientists are still counting the number of people who are yet to develop rapid antibodies inside them. It is even suspected that 40 percent of the people are slowly healing without having to develop symptoms.

The study underlines that although Spain is still one of those nations that are worst-hit by the coronavirus from the entire world, 95 percent of its inhabitants are prone to the book coronavirus. The report further reads, Spain is taken as an example since the extreme outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic happened initially at this place. Now that the curve is flat, scientists are finding it that if the population have achieved levels of herd immunity or not. At the Moment, herd resistance is hard to reach without accepting the security damage of deaths in the vulnerable people and overburdening of health programs

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Herd Immunity Is A Distant Dream- Antibodies May Disappear From An Individual's Body Within Weeks - Inventiva

Explained: A new calculation to find your dogs age in human years – The Indian Express

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Written by Kabir Firaque, Mehr Gill | New Delhi | Updated: July 9, 2020 7:34:11 am There exists a very simple thumb rule, used frequently over the years. The new research, however, has described it as a myth

Dogs live shorter lives than humans, and so a six-year-old dog is at a far later stage of its life than a six-year-old child. A dog can even be a grandparent at age six. What, then, is its age in human years? New research, published in the journal Cell Systems has come up with a formula and a graph to determine that.

Was there not a formula already?

There exists a very simple thumb rule, used frequently over the years. The new research, however, has described it as a myth. According to the popular rule, you multiply a dogs age by 7, and you supposedly get its equivalent age in human years: For example, a four-year-old dog is 28 in human years. Only, its not so simple.

Why not?

The new research, which is based on epigenetics, has found the comparison between human years and dog years is not perfectly linear which would have been the case had the 1:7 thumb rule been reliable. The relationship, in fact, follows the red curve shown in the figure.

How can I use this curve to determine my dogs age in human years?

First, find your dogs age along the horizontal (X) axis. Suppose your dog is four years old. Locate 4 on the horizontal axis, then trace your finger upwards until you reach the red curve. From that point, move left towards the vertical (Y) axis, where you have human years (illustrated with Tom Hanks at various ages). Your finger will touch the vertical axis at, in this case, 52 years.

So, a four-year-old dog is equivalent in physiological age to a 52-year-old Tom Hanks (or any 52-year-old human). This is almost twice as much the age you would get (28) if you followed the 1:7 thumb rule.

What is the basis of this new calculation?

It is based on molecular changes in the human genome and dog genome over time. Researchers at the University of California at San Diego analysed patterns over time in methylation a term that refers to specific chemical changes in the genome.

This is the field that is known as epigenetics, which studies chemical modifications that influence which genes are off or on, without altering the original genetic sequence itself. The new formula, the researchers said, provides a new epigenetic clock for determining the age of a cell, tissue or organism.

How did the researchers derive the formula?

The UC San Diego team had previously published epigenetic clocks for humans. For the new study, they collaborated with dog genetics experts at UC Davis and the US National Human Genome Research Institute. They analysed blood samples from 105 Labrador retrievers for changes with age.

Only Labradors?

Indeed, that is one limitation of the new epigenetic clock, acknowledged by senior author Trey Ideker himself. (The first author is Tina Wang, Idekers former graduate student, who first suggested the idea for such a study.) In a statement, Ideker acknowledged that the new epigenetic clock was developed using a single breed of dog, and some dog breeds are known to live longer than others. More research will be needed, he said.

Will it work for my dog if it is not a Labrador?

Ideker said it is accurate for humans and mice, as well as Labrador retrievers. He predicts that the clock will apply to all dog breeds. As such, it may provide a useful tool for veterinarians and even for evaluating anti-ageing interventions, the researchers suggest.

How so?

There are a variety of anti-ageing interventions in the market, with some of these standing on a more solid scientific foundation than others. But, as Ideker noted in the statement, how do you know if a product will truly extend your life without waiting 40 years or so?

If you refer to the new epigenetic clock, you need not wait, he suggested. What if you could measure your age-associated methylation patterns before, during and after the intervention to see if its doing anything?

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Explained: A new calculation to find your dogs age in human years - The Indian Express