The Elbert County medical practice at the center of a COVID-19 vaccine controversy says it was shocked at being suspended by the state after giving shots to educators. “We feel we were used to send a message,’’ said Dr. Jonathan Poon, part of the seven-physician family medicine practice in rural northeast Georgia. “We were really…
By Alicia Thompson McBride In nine years of teaching English to teenagers, I thought I had heard it all – until essays from a writing assignment revealed the secret lives of my students. Their papers opened my eyes to the psychological traumas that plague their lives – pressures that COVID-19 is exponentially magnifying. A year…
With COVID raging in Georgia, school districts across the state have faced tough decisions on how to handle instruction as the semester begins this week. Hall County schools, for example, are starting out the semester this week with virtual-only classes. But in Oconee County, also in northeast Georgia, kids are expected back in the classroom…
By Rebecca Grapevine Nine years ago, Georgia reported ample data to the feds on the health care quality of its Medicaid and PeachCare programs. In fact, a federal report at that time praised Georgia’s “proactive role in designing its data systems to support quality measurement.” For seven more years, Georgia continued to be near the…
Sunken Costs: The utility giant’s quiet purchasing spree could shield it from coal ash cleanup expenses This article was produced in partnership with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Georgia Health News is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. By Max Blau Over the past several years, utility giant Georgia…
As a travel nurse, Denise Robinson of Atlanta takes assignments on a temporary basis in hospitals in Georgia and elsewhere. This year she traveled to New York to work at a hospital during the height of the city’s COVID-19 crisis. The workplace hazards she faced – the risk of infection in a virus hot spot —…
For a year of her life, Linda Ferguson lived in a booth at a transit stop. She spent another year living under a bridge. Her homelessness, she says now, “was a bad situation. Nobody likes to be outside. It’s a very insecure feeling.’’ At one point Ferguson, who deals with severe anxiety attacks, lost her…
Story updated Being a probate judge in Georgia has turned into a vulnerability during the pandemic. Fifteen of these Georgia judges — about 1 in 10 – have been infected with COVID-19. And this week, Karen Batten, 62, probate judge of Brantley County, became the third to die of COVID-19. The state has 159 counties,…
A USA Today analysis shows that of the 10 counties in the nation with the highest death rates from COVID-19, five are in Georgia. Hancock County is No. 1 on the list. The Middle Georgia county, with a death rate from COVID-19 of 45.7 per 10,000 residents, became a virus hot spot after outbreaks in two…
From car accidents to gunshot wounds to bicycle crashes, some major Georgia hospitals are reporting an increase in trauma cases since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Grady Memorial Hospital has seen a 25 percent rise in trauma cases. Such injuries have reached the highest level that CEO John Haupert has seen since he arrived at the…