How COVID and poverty have ravaged rural Georgia

It’s not just the actual infections that have altered the medical landscape in Cook County. The COVID-19 pandemic has produced many more people with depression and anxiety, says Dr. Jairaj Goberdhan, a family physician in the South Georgia county. “I have written more prescriptions for that,’’ he says, adding, “I have written more sleep aid…

Georgia lawmakers weigh ‘express lane’ for many uninsured kids to get Medicaid

Tens of thousands of uninsured Georgia children could gain a pathway to health coverage under a House bill moving through the General Assembly. The legislation, if approved, would lead to the state creating “express lane eligibility’’ for many kids receiving food stamps to be automatically added to the Medicaid program. About 7 percent of children…

Elbert clinic says state punishment over COVID shots was unfair

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…

South has high rate of unreported COVID deaths, study says

Story updated Southern states have higher rates of unreported COVID-related deaths than other regions of the country, according to a new study. The study, led by Andrew Stokes, a professor of global health at Boston University School of Public Health, analyzed deaths in 787 U.S. counties that had more than 20 COVID fatalities from Feb….

One year later: Kobe Bryant’s poetry in rural Georgia

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…

Where poison lurks for Georgia children

When Maya put paint chips in her mouth, her mother instantly knew the danger. Sarah Tuck recognized that their Savannah rental home, built 100 years ago, could contain lead. So she got Maya tested through a doctor’s office. The reading for Maya when she was about a year old was a disturbing 18 micrograms of…

Hospitals, nursing homes first in line as COVID vaccine coming soon

Georgia expects to receive several hundred thousand doses of COVID vaccines this month for its initial distribution, the state Public Health commissioner said Tuesday. The first groups to get shots will be health care workers and residents and staff of long-term care facilities, said the commissioner, Dr. Kathleen Toomey, at a news conference at the…

School mask policies: A study in contrasts

By Annie Waldman and Heather Vogell This article comes from ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  On an August morning in Emanuel County in eastern Georgia, hundreds of children bounded off freshly cleaned school buses and out of their parents’ cars. They were greeted by the principal, teachers and staff at Swainsboro Middle School,…

Race and COVID: Stark disparities in rural Georgia

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…

National poll highlights perils of COVID-19 in rural Georgia

Many rural households are struggling with access to health care and financial problems during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a national poll released Wednesday. The poll of more than 500 adults living in rural areas found that one in four of these families said they had a member unable to get medical care for a…