Join fight against climate change to protect health

By June Deen and Dr. Anne Mellinger-Birdsong In the past year, a global pandemic killed millions of people worldwide and thousands here at home. COVID-19 exposed weaknesses in our health system and health inequities as people of color became infected and died at higher rates. We are coming out of the pandemic, but will we apply the…

HHS chief visits Georgia, addresses FDA vaccine process, Medicaid

A top Biden administration health official, visiting Gwinnett County in suburban Atlanta, said Monday that the FDA is relying on science and facts in its decision-making on giving full authorization to COVID-19 vaccines. As of now, COVID vaccines used in the United States have been authorized for emergency use. The wait for full authorization, though,…

COVID spread in Georgia driving patients to urgent care, hospitals

Georgia’s COVID case numbers jumped by 4,800 in the state figures reported Thursday, continuing a recent upswing that’s apparently fueled by the Delta variant. “It is believed that the Delta variant is highly prevalent throughout Georgia,” said Dr. Charles Ruis, health director in the Southwest Health District, which is based in Albany. “The best way…

Commentary: Child obesity an urgent issue

Childhood obesity was a concern in Georgia even before the pandemic. It undoubtedly got worse after COVID-19 hit, as children and teenagers shifted into more sedentary behavior. In a new GHN Commentary, Jennifer Owens of HealthMPowers and Debbie Kibbe of the Georgia Health Policy Center emphasize that the state can’t just “tread water’’ on dealing…

Mask rules make comeback as concern grows on virus spread

Hospitals treating more patients and bracing for even more. Mask requirements returning. The push for vaccinations getting stronger, with more workers facing mandatory shots. The unsettling rise in COVID cases has prompted a flurry of virus-related activity this week across the state and the nation. Take Central Georgia. A Public Health spokesman there sent out…

Georgia now monitoring 43 for monkeypox; still no reports of symptoms

The number of people in Georgia being monitored for potential exposure to monkeypox has increased to 43, Public Health officials said Monday. The new 17 were added to the 26 reported by GHN last week because the CDC “originally assigned them to the wrong jurisdiction,’’ said Nancy Nydam, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of…

26 in Georgia monitored for monkeypox, though not showing symptoms

Public health officials say that of the more than 200 people in the U.S. being monitored for possible exposure to monkeypox, 26 are in Georgia. The monitoring has come after these people came into contact with an individual who contracted the rare disease before flying earlier this month from Nigeria to Atlanta and then to…

Another COVID risk: Home health care workers who are not vaccinated

“It’s not just hospital workers,’’ the email said. A GHN reader was responding to stories about hospital workers who are unvaccinated, which we co-published with WebMD and Medscape. (Here’s a link) The emailer told me that he was having trouble finding a home health care company with workers who had been vaccinated against COVID-19. His…

Deaths of Despair: Two Georgia counties show stark contrast

By Ray Suarez You might assume that states wrestling with premature death from suicide and substance abuse were places of failure and decline, where the human toll of disappointment illustrates bigger problems about life. But America is more complicated than that. Understanding the evolving human condition can require both flying overhead at 30,000 feet and…

Georgia among 47 states seeing troubling rise in COVID infections

Georgia’s color-coded county map has begun to show shades that reflect an uptick of COVID cases. And the state’s graph that tracks daily infections has turned upward after a June bottom. The state, along with 46 others, has seen an increase of COVID infections over the past two weeks, according to New York Times data….