Decontamination of N95 Respirators With Vaporized Hydrogen Peroxide Effective, Study Finds

The new research article, which was published by American Journal of Infection Control, is based on data collected at a large tertiary care academic center in Boston from June 15 to Aug. 31, 2020. Over the course of the study, the researchers tested a total of 35 3MTM brand N95 respirators for fit and seal. From the 35, seven of the N95 respirators were tested for filtration efficiency.

Read More »

Mass. Joins States Offering Digital Access to Vaccination Records

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced on Monday that residents are now able to use a QR code to access the My Vax Records tool on the COVID-19 SMART Health Card platform, offering a digital repository for vaccination status. They can enter their name, birth date and e-mail address or phone number to create the account, which offers the same data as a paper record.

Read More »

AMA President Blasts New CDC Guidance on COVID-19 Isolation

CDC guidance on quarantine and isolation for those who have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 or people who test positive for COVID-19 has changed several times since the beginning of the pandemic. Under certain circumstances, the new guidance reduces the amount of time that people must quarantine or isolate themselves from 10 days to five days.

Read More »

Primary Care Sidelined in Coronavirus Pandemic Response, Study Says

The pandemic has highlighted weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the country’s healthcare and public health systems. For example, primary care and public health have been underfunded in the United States, limiting their ability to react to the pandemic. The United States allocates about 6% of national healthcare spending on primary care, which is less than half of the average expenditure on primary care in other high-income countries.

Read More »

Delayed Care Linked to Increase in NJ Excess Deaths During Pandemic, Report Says

Health systems, hospitals, and other healthcare organizations have reported significant decreases in service utilization in the early months of the pandemic linked to patient concern over becoming infected with COVID-19 in a healthcare setting. In a September 2020 New Jersey Hospital Association survey of a representative sampling of Garden State adults, 83% of survey respondents reported being concerned about going to a hospital due to fear of contracting COVID-19.

Read More »

As Patients Fell Ill With COVID-19 Inside Hospitals, Government Oversight Fell Short

Hospitals, like Riverside, with high rates of COVID patients who didn’t have the diagnosis when they were admitted have rarely been held accountable due to multiple gaps in government oversight, a KHN investigation has found. While a federal reporting system closely tracks hospital-acquired infections for MRSA and other bugs, it doesn’t publicly report covid caught in individual hospitals.

Read More »