Filling the need for trusted information on national health issues
Adults who report having ever been told by a doctor they have a weakened or compromised immune system are more likely than others to say they are worried about serious COVID-19 illness, with many reporting continued mask wearing and other precautions as mask mandates and other pandemic-relate restrictions are lifted.
Emerging COVID-19 variants, like the Omicron subvariant BA.5 that has recently caused a surge in cases, may pose new risks to children and create challenges for the back-to-school season.
Children may also continue to face challenges due to the ongoing health, economic, and social consequences of the pandemic. This brief examines how the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect children’s physical and mental health, considers what the findings mean for the upcoming back-to-school season, and explores recent policy responses.
Federal policymakers have taken several actions to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic on families and children by providing state fiscal relief, increased nutrition assistance, Medicaid funding, and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC); however, some of this assistance has or will expire. This brief examines hardship across three metrics—difficulty paying for normal household expenses, food sufficiency, and uncertainty in paying for rent or mortgage payments for households with children and by income.
Long COVID has been described as our “next national health disaster” and the “pandemic after the pandemic,” but we know little about how many people are affected, how long it will last for those affected, and how it could change employment and health coverage landscapes. This policy watch reviews what we know and outlines key questions to watch for regarding employment and coverage outcomes. We continue to follow the research on who is most at risk of long COVID and whether there are interventions that can reduce its incidence, length, or severity.
This analysis examines monkeypox vaccine allocations and jurisdictional requests. It explores jurisdictional request rate (the number of vaccine does requested as a share of the jurisdiction’s allocation from HHS) for JYNNEOS, the preferred vaccine. Overall, while most jurisdictions have requested at least their full supply, some are well below that mark, raising questions about how quickly their at-risk populations can get protected.
This post provides updated estimates the number of people who are not up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccination living in counties designated by the CDC as being “high” or “medium” COVID-19 community levels. These are areas of elevated risk, with relatively high levels of new COVID-19 cases and strained hospital capacity. This analysis finds that the number of those not up to date on COVID-19 vaccination, and the most at risk for severe illness, living in areas of elevated risk has grown since early June 2022.
The brief provides a quick explainer of the prescription drug provisions in legislative text released by the Senate Finance Committee to be included in a forthcoming reconciliation bill and presents new estimates on how many Medicare beneficiaries could be helped by those provisions.
This updated fact sheet provides the latest data on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, including impact on affected/vulnerable populations, treatment and prevention efforts, and an overview of the U.S. and global responses to the epidemic.
This brief answers key questions about the U.S. monkeypox outbreak to date and identifies issues that may affect the response going forward.
Most Parents Open to Getting Their Young Child Vaccinated Haven’t Yet Spoken to Their Pediatrician Most parents of young children newly eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine are reluctant to get them vaccinated, including 43% who say they will “definitely not” do so, a new KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor survey finds…
