Public Health

Texas hospitals are experiencing several disasters at once from a winter storm that compromised the state's electricity and water supply and left at least 31 dead, including 16 Texans, as of Thursday morning. 

Winter storms across the U.S. are likely to have partially resulted in artificially low COVID-19 numbers, reports The COVID Tracking Project.

Mayor Muriel Bowser formally declared gun violence a public health crisis in Washington, D.C., Feb. 17 and announced a $15 million investment to address the issue, reports The Washington Post.

Fountain Valley, Calif.-based MemorialCare is offering a free online mental health program to its patients and 14 million Southern California residents, the health system said Feb. 9. 

Many people in Texas are turning to dangerous heat sources amid widespread power outages caused by a rare winter storm, leading to more than 300 carbon monoxide poisoning cases in the Houston area so far, the Houston Chronicle reported Feb.…

For the first time in 2021, no state is reporting a seven-day COVID-19 case average higher than 10,000 as of Feb. 16, reports The COVID Tracking Project.

Several physician organizations in Pennsylvania are urging the state's health department to rescind a recent decision that cut primary care providers from the list of those allowed to administer the COVID-19 vaccine, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Feb. 13. 

U.S. hospitals saw patient volume for CMS-defined shoppable services drop an average of 35.2 percent in the second quarter of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019, according to a new analysis from Hospital Pricing Specialists. 

San Francisco-based Dignity Health opened a COVID-19 vaccination site Feb. 15 and plans to administer 20,000 shots to underserved Los Angeles residents by Feb. 19.

The Harris County (Texas) Health Department rushed to administer more than 5,000 vaccine doses Feb. 15 after a harsh winter storm left the Houston facility without power, ABC News reported.