News, analysis and commentary for FL health professionals
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January 20, 2022 | Volume XIII | Issue 3
Providers concerned about staffing shortages post-SCOTUS vaccination mandate ruling

Rebecca Pifer reports for Healthcare Dive:

Providers are raising concerns that federal vaccine mandates for healthcare facilities upheld by the Supreme Court last Thursday could exacerbate serious staffing shortages across the U.S., threatening care in regions with low vaccination rates.

In a separate ruling, the Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for large employers, voting 6-3 on ideological lines to strike down the rule. The decision is a serious blow to the administration's pandemic response efforts, and one public health experts noted would set the nation back in its fight against COVID-19...
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Long-Excluded Uterine Cancer Patients Are a Step Closer to 9/11 Benefits
Tammy Kaminski can still recall the taste of benzene, a carcinogenic byproduct of burning jet fuel. For nine months after the 9/11 attacks, she volunteered for eight hours every Saturday at St. Paul’s Chapel, just around the corner from ground zero in New York City. She breathed in cancer-causing toxic substances, like fuel fumes and asbestos, from the smoke that lingered and the ash that blanketed the pop-up clinic where first responders could grab a meal, take a nap or get medical care.

But in 2015, when Kaminski, a chiropractor who lives in West Caldwell, New Jersey, was diagnosed with uterine cancer, she didn’t get the same help that other volunteers did. Although Kaminski, 61, and her doctors believe the cancer is linked to her time volunteering after 9/11, the federal health insurance and monitoring program would not cover her treatments for endometrial cancer — or those of anyone exposed to toxic substances from the attacks who then developed that form of uterine cancer.

That could change soon. In November, an advisory committee unanimously approved a recommendation to add uterine cancer to the list of diseases covered by the program for first responders and people who were in the vicinity of the terrorist attacks. It’s the fourth-most-common cancer among women. But, according to the advisory committee, it’s the only cancer the program doesn’t cover. The program’s administrator is expected to make a final ruling by mid-2022.
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Can patients just say no to treatment?

Charles Hebert, MD writes in a KevinMD blog post:

When can a patient say “yes” or “no” to a recommended colonoscopy? A blood transfusion? A COVID vaccine?

As 2022 opens, health officials predict a tsunami of new coronavirus cases worldwide due to the Omicron and Delta variants. For more than a year, official messaging has been that vaccination is the way out of the pandemic.

But ongoing vaccine hesitancy has hindered progress.
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Vaccination protects against Covid-19 hospitalization more than prior infection
Vaccination protects against Covid-19 hospitalization more than prior infection
CNN

Both vaccination and prior infection help protect against new Covid-19 infections, but vaccination protects against hospitalization significantly more than natural immunity from prior infection alone, according to a study published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen reports.
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