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"content": "\u003cp>The U.S. Department of Education says it will retroactively help millions of federal student loan borrowers who have been hurt and held back by its troubled income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, calling the plans’ longstanding flaws and mismanagement “inexcusable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday’s announcement comes after \u003ca href=\"https://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/student_loans/IB_IDR.pdf\">years of complaints\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-sues-nations-largest-student-loan-company-navient-failing-borrowers-every-stage-repayment/\">lawsuits\u003c/a> and, most recently, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/01/1089750113/student-loan-debt-investigation\">an NPR investigation\u003c/a> that revealed that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/01/1089750113/student-loan-debt-investigation\">these IDR plans, which promise affordable monthly payments as low as $0 and loan forgiveness after 20-25 years, have been badly mismanaged\u003c/a> by the department and the loan servicing companies it employs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today, the Department of Education will begin to remedy years of administrative failures that effectively denied the promise of loan forgiveness to certain borrowers enrolled in IDR plans,” U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID=\"news_11910436,news_11910169\" label=\"Related Stories\"]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department estimates that the changes will result in immediate debt cancellation for at least 40,000 borrowers who will now qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. In addition, several thousand borrowers will now qualify for debt cancellation under IDR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/student_loans/IB_IDR.pdf\">This follows a 2021 revelation\u003c/a> that, at the time, 4.4 million borrowers had been repaying their loans for at least 20 years but only 32 had had debts canceled under IDR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result of Tuesday’s news, millions more borrowers will also receive months and, in some cases, years of new credit toward eventual cancellation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what the department is committing to do:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Borrowers with long-term forbearances will get credit toward debt cancellation\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The department and its office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) pledge to conduct a “one-time account adjustment” to give borrowers credit for time spent in what it considers unjustifiably long forbearances: more than 12 consecutive months or more than 36 cumulative months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forbearance allows borrowers in financial trouble to pause their payments, but interest continues to accrue and capitalize, meaning the interest itself ends up accruing interest. Income-driven repayment plans can offer the same, or nearly the same, reprieve from high monthly payments, and, unlike forbearance, they give borrowers a path toward loan cancellation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After July 2009 when IDR plans became widely available, forbearance should have been loan servicers’ tool of last resort for distressed borrowers. Instead, the department says, a new review found that servicers’ use of long-term forbearance was “remarkably widespread.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the department, between July 2009 and March 2020, more than 13% of all Direct Loan borrowers were in forbearance for at least 36 months, suggesting “loan servicers placed borrowers into forbearance in violation of Department rules, even when their monthly payment under an IDR plan could have been as low as zero dollars.” \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/lower-payments/get-temporary-relief/forbearance\">The department generally limits forbearance to 12 consecutive months or three years total\u003c/a>, after which payments should resume.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department’s remedy means that borrowers will be given credit toward loan cancellation for some of these long-term forbearances. For example, a borrower who spent 16 consecutive months in forbearance would be given credit for 16 qualifying payments toward cancellation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department estimates that 3.6 million borrowers will receive at least three years of new credit toward cancellation. Many more borrowers will benefit but receive less than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan excludes one prominent group of borrowers: those who spent less than 12 consecutive months and less than 36 cumulative months in forbearance, though it does promise an “account review” for those who choose to file a complaint with FSA’s ombudsman.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Inaccuracies in how qualifying payments were counted will be corrected\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/01/1089750113/student-loan-debt-investigation\">NPR reporting earlier this month revealed pervasive inaccuracies\u003c/a> in loan servicers’ counts of borrowers’ qualifying IDR payments, which the department now acknowledges and pledges to address with a one-time revision of past payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any months in which borrowers made payments will count toward IDR, regardless of repayment plan,” the department’s release says. “Payments made prior to consolidation on consolidated loans will also count. This fix is necessary to correct for data problems and past implementation inaccuracies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After acquiring internal department documents, NPR found a litany of irregularities in how loan servicers were counting — or failing to count — qualifying IDR payments, thereby delaying borrowers’ progress toward forgiveness. For example, $0 monthly payments were not being adequately tracked, potentially hurting the lowest-income borrowers. Also, borrowers appeared to erroneously lose credit for previous progress made toward IDR after emerging from default.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Improving the way borrowers’ progress toward loan cancellation gets tracked\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The department is offering two remedies for another serious problem highlighted in NPR’s recent investigation — that loan servicers weren’t uniformly tracking borrowers’ progress toward loan cancellation, and some weren’t tracking their progress \u003cem>at all\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FSA now says it will issue new guidance to servicers to make sure the companies’ records are accurate and uniform. Perhaps more importantly, the department says in 2023 it will begin tracking IDR payments on its own system and displaying borrowers’ progress at StudentAid.gov.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>These changes will happen automatically — but it may take awhile\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The department says it will make these adjustments to borrower records automatically, but first it will need to upgrade its antiquated National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). As such, loan cancellations won’t officially begin until fall of this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The overhaul comes amid mounting political pressure\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The department unveiled its overhaul plans amid mounting pressure from lawmakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, citing NPR’s reporting, the chairs of both House and Senate education committees, \u003ca href=\"https://www.help.senate.gov/chair/newsroom/press/murray-scott-push-biden-administration-to-fix-longstanding-failures-with-income-driven-student-loan-repayment-system\">Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., urged Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in a letter to “provide immediate relief and undo past harms.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Borrowers have for too long, lived with ballooning debts and the false promise of loan forgiveness after 20 or 25 years in income-driven repayment,” the letter said. “Payments must be corrected retroactively in order to provide relief to borrowers who have already been harmed by this broken safety net.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the department’s proposal addresses some of Scott’s and Murray’s demands, it falls short in at least one area. The top Democrats implored the department to retroactively give borrowers credit toward loan cancellation for \u003cem>all\u003c/em> past periods of forbearance, not just long-term pauses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Scott said “today’s announcement means that borrowers in Income-Driven Repayment will finally have reliable access to the loan forgiveness that they were promised and have been working toward… However, while the Department has taken a significant step to support borrowers, we know we must do more to fix our broken student loan system, including the Income-Driven Repayment program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, leading Senate Democrats, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092804056/student-loan-debt-investigation-response\">Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, also sent a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra\u003c/a>, calling for his agency to investigate and “use all of its authorities to ensure borrowers are accessing IDR program benefits and receive the student loan forgiveness they have earned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department’s announcement also comes not long before the U.S. Government Accountability Office is expected to release the results of its own investigation into IDR’s failures.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>NPR is committed to reporting on pressing issues that matter to you, like student loans. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/newsletter/ed\">\u003cem>Sign up for our Education newsletter\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> to stay up to date. You can support NPR’s trusted, vital coverage by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/donations/support\">\u003cem>donating to your local NPR station today\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Student+loan+borrowers+will+get+help+after+an+NPR+report+and+years+of+complaints&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The U.S. Department of Education says it will retroactively help millions of federal student loan borrowers who have been hurt and held back by its troubled income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, calling the plans’ longstanding flaws and mismanagement “inexcusable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday’s announcement comes after \u003ca href=\"https://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/student_loans/IB_IDR.pdf\">years of complaints\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-sues-nations-largest-student-loan-company-navient-failing-borrowers-every-stage-repayment/\">lawsuits\u003c/a> and, most recently, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/01/1089750113/student-loan-debt-investigation\">an NPR investigation\u003c/a> that revealed that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/01/1089750113/student-loan-debt-investigation\">these IDR plans, which promise affordable monthly payments as low as $0 and loan forgiveness after 20-25 years, have been badly mismanaged\u003c/a> by the department and the loan servicing companies it employs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today, the Department of Education will begin to remedy years of administrative failures that effectively denied the promise of loan forgiveness to certain borrowers enrolled in IDR plans,” U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department estimates that the changes will result in immediate debt cancellation for at least 40,000 borrowers who will now qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. In addition, several thousand borrowers will now qualify for debt cancellation under IDR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/student_loans/IB_IDR.pdf\">This follows a 2021 revelation\u003c/a> that, at the time, 4.4 million borrowers had been repaying their loans for at least 20 years but only 32 had had debts canceled under IDR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result of Tuesday’s news, millions more borrowers will also receive months and, in some cases, years of new credit toward eventual cancellation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what the department is committing to do:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Borrowers with long-term forbearances will get credit toward debt cancellation\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The department and its office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) pledge to conduct a “one-time account adjustment” to give borrowers credit for time spent in what it considers unjustifiably long forbearances: more than 12 consecutive months or more than 36 cumulative months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forbearance allows borrowers in financial trouble to pause their payments, but interest continues to accrue and capitalize, meaning the interest itself ends up accruing interest. Income-driven repayment plans can offer the same, or nearly the same, reprieve from high monthly payments, and, unlike forbearance, they give borrowers a path toward loan cancellation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After July 2009 when IDR plans became widely available, forbearance should have been loan servicers’ tool of last resort for distressed borrowers. Instead, the department says, a new review found that servicers’ use of long-term forbearance was “remarkably widespread.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the department, between July 2009 and March 2020, more than 13% of all Direct Loan borrowers were in forbearance for at least 36 months, suggesting “loan servicers placed borrowers into forbearance in violation of Department rules, even when their monthly payment under an IDR plan could have been as low as zero dollars.” \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/lower-payments/get-temporary-relief/forbearance\">The department generally limits forbearance to 12 consecutive months or three years total\u003c/a>, after which payments should resume.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department’s remedy means that borrowers will be given credit toward loan cancellation for some of these long-term forbearances. For example, a borrower who spent 16 consecutive months in forbearance would be given credit for 16 qualifying payments toward cancellation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department estimates that 3.6 million borrowers will receive at least three years of new credit toward cancellation. Many more borrowers will benefit but receive less than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan excludes one prominent group of borrowers: those who spent less than 12 consecutive months and less than 36 cumulative months in forbearance, though it does promise an “account review” for those who choose to file a complaint with FSA’s ombudsman.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Inaccuracies in how qualifying payments were counted will be corrected\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/01/1089750113/student-loan-debt-investigation\">NPR reporting earlier this month revealed pervasive inaccuracies\u003c/a> in loan servicers’ counts of borrowers’ qualifying IDR payments, which the department now acknowledges and pledges to address with a one-time revision of past payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any months in which borrowers made payments will count toward IDR, regardless of repayment plan,” the department’s release says. “Payments made prior to consolidation on consolidated loans will also count. This fix is necessary to correct for data problems and past implementation inaccuracies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After acquiring internal department documents, NPR found a litany of irregularities in how loan servicers were counting — or failing to count — qualifying IDR payments, thereby delaying borrowers’ progress toward forgiveness. For example, $0 monthly payments were not being adequately tracked, potentially hurting the lowest-income borrowers. Also, borrowers appeared to erroneously lose credit for previous progress made toward IDR after emerging from default.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Improving the way borrowers’ progress toward loan cancellation gets tracked\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The department is offering two remedies for another serious problem highlighted in NPR’s recent investigation — that loan servicers weren’t uniformly tracking borrowers’ progress toward loan cancellation, and some weren’t tracking their progress \u003cem>at all\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FSA now says it will issue new guidance to servicers to make sure the companies’ records are accurate and uniform. Perhaps more importantly, the department says in 2023 it will begin tracking IDR payments on its own system and displaying borrowers’ progress at StudentAid.gov.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>These changes will happen automatically — but it may take awhile\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The department says it will make these adjustments to borrower records automatically, but first it will need to upgrade its antiquated National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). As such, loan cancellations won’t officially begin until fall of this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The overhaul comes amid mounting political pressure\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The department unveiled its overhaul plans amid mounting pressure from lawmakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, citing NPR’s reporting, the chairs of both House and Senate education committees, \u003ca href=\"https://www.help.senate.gov/chair/newsroom/press/murray-scott-push-biden-administration-to-fix-longstanding-failures-with-income-driven-student-loan-repayment-system\">Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., urged Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in a letter to “provide immediate relief and undo past harms.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Borrowers have for too long, lived with ballooning debts and the false promise of loan forgiveness after 20 or 25 years in income-driven repayment,” the letter said. “Payments must be corrected retroactively in order to provide relief to borrowers who have already been harmed by this broken safety net.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the department’s proposal addresses some of Scott’s and Murray’s demands, it falls short in at least one area. The top Democrats implored the department to retroactively give borrowers credit toward loan cancellation for \u003cem>all\u003c/em> past periods of forbearance, not just long-term pauses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Scott said “today’s announcement means that borrowers in Income-Driven Repayment will finally have reliable access to the loan forgiveness that they were promised and have been working toward… However, while the Department has taken a significant step to support borrowers, we know we must do more to fix our broken student loan system, including the Income-Driven Repayment program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, leading Senate Democrats, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092804056/student-loan-debt-investigation-response\">Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, also sent a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra\u003c/a>, calling for his agency to investigate and “use all of its authorities to ensure borrowers are accessing IDR program benefits and receive the student loan forgiveness they have earned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department’s announcement also comes not long before the U.S. Government Accountability Office is expected to release the results of its own investigation into IDR’s failures.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>NPR is committed to reporting on pressing issues that matter to you, like student loans. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/newsletter/ed\">\u003cem>Sign up for our Education newsletter\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> to stay up to date. You can support NPR’s trusted, vital coverage by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/donations/support\">\u003cem>donating to your local NPR station today\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Student+loan+borrowers+will+get+help+after+an+NPR+report+and+years+of+complaints&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "TSA Will No Longer Enforce Travel Mask Mandate After Federal Judge Strikes it Down",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"storyMajorUpdateDate\">\u003cstrong>Updated April 18, 2022 at 6:58 PM ET\u003c/strong>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>The federal travel mask mandate will not be implemented as the Biden administration reviews a Florida federal judge's ruling against it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The agencies are reviewing the decision and assessing potential next steps. In the meantime, today's court decision means CDC's public transportation masking order is not in effect at this time,\" according to a Biden administration official.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Therefore, TSA will not enforce its Security Directives and Emergency Amendment requiring mask use on public transportation and transportation hubs at this time.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle ruled that the federal mask mandate on planes, trains, buses and other modes of public transportation is \"unlawful.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mizelle wrote in a \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21636220/047124235804.pdf\">summary filed Monday \u003c/a>that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had exceeded its authority and failed to follow proper rulemaking procedures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a 59-page ruling, Mizelle argues that the mandate violates the Administrative Procedure Act, as the agency failed to prove its decision regarding implementing the mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit was filed in July 2021 by two plaintiffs and the \u003ca href=\"https://healthfreedomdefense.org/health-freedom-defense-fund-sues-biden-administration-over-mask-mandate/\">Health Freedom Defense Fund\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related coverage\" tag=\"mask-mandate\"]\"The court concludes that the mask mandate exceeds the CDC's statutory authority and violates the procedures required for agency rulemaking under the APA,\" the judge wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The White House called a federal judge's decision against the CDC mandate for public transportation \"disappointing,\" but said the administration's response was still under review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This is obviously a disappointing decision,\" White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday. \"The CDC continues recommending wearing a mask in public transit.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"As you know, this just came out this afternoon so right now the Department of Homeland Security, who would be implementing, and the CDC are reviewing the decision,\" Psaki said. \"And of course, the Department of Justice would make any determination about litigation.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just last week, the agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092785365/the-federal-transportation-mask-mandate-has-been-extended\">extended \u003c/a>the transportation mask mandate (which had been set to expire originally on April 18) through May 3 — allowing officials to take more time to study the BA.2 subvariant of COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We do have upward trends of infections. CDC is responding to the data, and it's implementing the measure it has the authority to do,\" said James Hodge, a public health law professor at Arizona State University in an \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092785365/the-federal-transportation-mask-mandate-has-been-extended\">interview \u003c/a>with NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, governors from 21 states \u003ca href=\"http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/GPEY-CCYHZH/%24file/Mask+Complaint+as+Filed.pdf\">sued the Biden administration \u003c/a>to end the federal public transportation mask mandate, arguing that the continued enforcement \"harms the states\" and interferes with some local laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The filing came days after \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/03/24/1088669929/airlines-federal-travel-mask-mandate\">airline CEOs\u003c/a> called on President Biden to drop the mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"President Biden's shortsighted, heavy-handed and unlawful travel policies are frustrating travelers and causing chaos on public transportation,\" Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, who is leading the states' effort, \u003ca href=\"http://www.myfloridalegal.com/newsrel.nsf/newsreleases/AA77384F1742127E852588140055CA74\">said in a statement.\u003c/a> \"It's long past time to alleviate some of the pressure on travelers and those working in the travel industry by immediately ending Biden's unlawful public transportation mandates.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mask-wearing requirement had been initially imposed in early 2021, shortly after Biden took office, in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=TSA+will+no+longer+enforce+travel+mask+mandate+after+a+federal+judge+strikes+it+down+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\"The court concludes that the mask mandate exceeds the CDC's statutory authority and violates the procedures required for agency rulemaking under the APA,\" the judge wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The White House called a federal judge's decision against the CDC mandate for public transportation \"disappointing,\" but said the administration's response was still under review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This is obviously a disappointing decision,\" White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday. \"The CDC continues recommending wearing a mask in public transit.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"As you know, this just came out this afternoon so right now the Department of Homeland Security, who would be implementing, and the CDC are reviewing the decision,\" Psaki said. \"And of course, the Department of Justice would make any determination about litigation.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just last week, the agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092785365/the-federal-transportation-mask-mandate-has-been-extended\">extended \u003c/a>the transportation mask mandate (which had been set to expire originally on April 18) through May 3 — allowing officials to take more time to study the BA.2 subvariant of COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We do have upward trends of infections. CDC is responding to the data, and it's implementing the measure it has the authority to do,\" said James Hodge, a public health law professor at Arizona State University in an \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092785365/the-federal-transportation-mask-mandate-has-been-extended\">interview \u003c/a>with NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, governors from 21 states \u003ca href=\"http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/GPEY-CCYHZH/%24file/Mask+Complaint+as+Filed.pdf\">sued the Biden administration \u003c/a>to end the federal public transportation mask mandate, arguing that the continued enforcement \"harms the states\" and interferes with some local laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The filing came days after \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/03/24/1088669929/airlines-federal-travel-mask-mandate\">airline CEOs\u003c/a> called on President Biden to drop the mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"President Biden's shortsighted, heavy-handed and unlawful travel policies are frustrating travelers and causing chaos on public transportation,\" Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, who is leading the states' effort, \u003ca href=\"http://www.myfloridalegal.com/newsrel.nsf/newsreleases/AA77384F1742127E852588140055CA74\">said in a statement.\u003c/a> \"It's long past time to alleviate some of the pressure on travelers and those working in the travel industry by immediately ending Biden's unlawful public transportation mandates.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mask-wearing requirement had been initially imposed in early 2021, shortly after Biden took office, in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=TSA+will+no+longer+enforce+travel+mask+mandate+after+a+federal+judge+strikes+it+down+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "CDC Extends Transportation Mask Mandate Until May 3",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 3:00 p.m. EDT\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration is extending its face mask requirement for public transit for another 15 days. That means travelers will still need to mask up in airports, planes, buses, trains and at transit hubs until May 3.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mask travel requirement had been set to expire this coming Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is keeping in place \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/masks/mask-travel-guidance.html\">its mask rule\u003c/a> \"in order to assess the potential impact the rise of cases has on severe disease, including hospitalizations and deaths, and health care system capacity,\" according to an agency spokesperson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spokesperson also confirmed that the Transportation Security Administration, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.tsa.gov/coronavirus/faq#:~:text=Yes%2C%20you%20are%20required%20to,to%20you%2C%20if%20supplies%20allow\">handles enforcement \u003c/a>of the order, is extending its security directive and emergency amendment for another 15 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"mask-mandates\"]The decision was made in response to the increasing spread of the omicron subvariant in the U.S. and an increase in the 7-day moving average of cases, which has risen by around 25% over the last two weeks nationally. Certain states are seeing \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/09/01/816707182/map-tracking-the-spread-of-the-coronavirus-in-the-u-s\">much larger increases\u003c/a> in new cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC is following the science with this latest decision, says \u003ca href=\"https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/1436144\">James Hodge\u003c/a>, who directs the Center for Public Health Law and Policy at Arizona State University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I believe that a two-week period is just enough to say we're watching very carefully,\" he says. \"If we pull this mask mandate, we will have extended numbers of infections — that's not responsible and that's counter to the public's health.\u003cem>\"\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, there has been growing pressure on the Biden administration to lift the mask rule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter to Biden last month, the industry group Airlines for America \u003ca href=\"https://www.airlines.org/news/a4a-urges-white-house-to-lift-predeparture-testing-requirements-mask-mandate/\">argued that\u003c/a> it was no longer necessary to keep the order in place. Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has also recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.flgov.com/2022/03/29/governor-ron-desantis-and-attorney-general-ashley-moody-announce-lawsuit-against-the-cdcs-unlawful-mask-mandate-on-public-transportation/\">announced\u003c/a> he's leading a multi-state lawsuit against the requirement to wear masks on public transit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While there are many supporters of the mask requirement, some infectious disease experts say it's time for the U.S. to lift the mandate because cases are much lower than they have been in a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, the CDC's \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view?list_select_state=all_states&list_select_county=all_counties&data-type=CommunityLevels&null=CommunityLevels\">own metrics show\u003c/a> that about 95% of the country is currently designated as having \"low\" community levels of COVID-19, says Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's really not consistent to have a mask mandate on a plane or a bus versus the whole community,\" says Gandhi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She notes that activities like indoor dining tend to be more risky than flying on planes, which have very good ventilation. \"So I think the inconsistency can be perceived as problematic.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=CDC+extends+transportation+mask+mandate+until+May+3&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The decision was made in response to the increasing spread of the omicron subvariant in the U.S. and an increase in the 7-day moving average of cases, which has risen by around 25% over the last two weeks nationally. Certain states are seeing \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/09/01/816707182/map-tracking-the-spread-of-the-coronavirus-in-the-u-s\">much larger increases\u003c/a> in new cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC is following the science with this latest decision, says \u003ca href=\"https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/1436144\">James Hodge\u003c/a>, who directs the Center for Public Health Law and Policy at Arizona State University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I believe that a two-week period is just enough to say we're watching very carefully,\" he says. \"If we pull this mask mandate, we will have extended numbers of infections — that's not responsible and that's counter to the public's health.\u003cem>\"\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, there has been growing pressure on the Biden administration to lift the mask rule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter to Biden last month, the industry group Airlines for America \u003ca href=\"https://www.airlines.org/news/a4a-urges-white-house-to-lift-predeparture-testing-requirements-mask-mandate/\">argued that\u003c/a> it was no longer necessary to keep the order in place. Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has also recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.flgov.com/2022/03/29/governor-ron-desantis-and-attorney-general-ashley-moody-announce-lawsuit-against-the-cdcs-unlawful-mask-mandate-on-public-transportation/\">announced\u003c/a> he's leading a multi-state lawsuit against the requirement to wear masks on public transit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While there are many supporters of the mask requirement, some infectious disease experts say it's time for the U.S. to lift the mandate because cases are much lower than they have been in a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, the CDC's \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view?list_select_state=all_states&list_select_county=all_counties&data-type=CommunityLevels&null=CommunityLevels\">own metrics show\u003c/a> that about 95% of the country is currently designated as having \"low\" community levels of COVID-19, says Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's really not consistent to have a mask mandate on a plane or a bus versus the whole community,\" says Gandhi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She notes that activities like indoor dining tend to be more risky than flying on planes, which have very good ventilation. \"So I think the inconsistency can be perceived as problematic.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=CDC+extends+transportation+mask+mandate+until+May+3&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated April 12, 2022 at 8:36 AM ET\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From rising rent to higher heating bills, surging inflation impacts everybody, but it poses a particular hardship for people with little extra money to spare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, the Labor Department reported that \u003ca href=\"https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm\">consumer prices in March were 8.5% higher than a year ago\u003c/a> — the sharpest increase since December of 1981.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While no one likes paying more for haircuts or hamburgers, high inflation is especially painful for lower-income families, whose spending is heavily weighted toward necessities such as gasoline and groceries, which have seen some of the largest price hikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gasoline prices have jumped 48% in the last year while grocery prices are up 10%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These families have little fat in their household budgets to start with, so when inflation cuts into their limited spending power, something has to give.[aside postID=\"forum_2010101888006\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/43/2022/02/inflation-2-1020x816.jpg\"]Take Laura Kemp, a widow in Muldrow, Oklahoma, who says that her heating bill last month was $306, more than double the $125 she paid a year ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I live in a two-bedroom mobile home,\" she says. \"I don't understand what's going on. Every month it's increasing and it's taking up about a third of my income.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kemp feels like she's losing ground, priced out of even small indulgences like a McDonald's meal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"By the 10th of the month, I have $200 left,\" she says. \"The $200 a month is now going into my gas tank.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'm not making it to the end of the month anymore,\" she adds. \"Even getting a Big Mac now — a Big Mac meal is $8 — I can't afford it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the weather warms up, Kemp plans to plant a vegetable garden in hopes of defraying her food bill. She has picked out seeds for tomatoes, zucchini, peppers and eggplants, and she's eyeing some of the land her brother owns — where her mobile home also sits.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>From groceries to rent, prices are surging everywhere\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Charlene Rye, who retired after 28 years in the poultry industry — much of that time in chicken-processing plants — finds herself having to make hard choices after chicken prices rose sharply over the last year, like everything else in the grocery store.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You have to be a little more cautious in what you cook and things you make and things you buy,\" she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rye has been getting help from a food pantry in Sallisaw, Okla., which has gotten busier as prices have climbed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They open at 10 o'clock, and if you're there at 9, there's already people in line,\" she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Terrie Dean, it's the cost of housing that really stings. She and her teenage son are living temporarily in a motel in Sallisaw. She relies on disability payments of about $1,600 a month, which for now puts an apartment out of reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They want first month and deposit, not realizing that may be all this family brings in,\" said Dean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lower-income families typically spend about 45% of their income on housing, compared with 18% for upper-income families. Shelter costs have risen 5% in the last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Gas prices tend to hit especially hard\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The disparity for food and transportation is even larger — consuming 9% of high-income households' budgets but 26% for households that are low income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, gasoline prices jumped to $4.33 a gallon in March — an all-time high, not adjusting for inflation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increased gas prices can impact family ties. Soaring energy prices forced Patricia Bridgmon of Chicago to cut back on visits to her elderly mother in Hammond, Indiana, about 25 minutes away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's just horrible with the gas,\" she says. \"I usually go to see her three days out of the week. Now, it's down to one, because of the gas.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/dKHDavoB8IU\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kemp, the widow with the increased heating bill, has also cut back on driving to Fort Smith, Arkansas., about 35 minutes from her home in eastern Oklahoma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I love going to the art museums and thrift store shopping and just getting out,\" she said. \"But I can't even go anymore.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Rye, the retired poultry worker, has to weigh the cost of driving to a larger supermarket that's farther away against shopping closer to home, where prices are higher, even in good times.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Federal Reserve plans to fight inflation aggressively\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Federal Reserve officials are well aware of the toll that inflation is taking, especially on lower-income families, a point that Fed Gov. Lael Brainard highlighted in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/brainard20220405a.htm\">speech last week\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"While all Americans are confronting higher prices, the burden is particularly great for households with more limited resources,\" Brainard said. \"That is why getting inflation down is our most important task, while sustaining a recovery that includes everyone.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Fed began raising interest rates last month in an effort to tamp down consumer demand and bring prices under control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The central bank started slowly, raising rates by a quarter percentage point. But markets anticipate that the Fed will become more aggressive, with a half-point increase now widely expected at the next Fed meeting in early May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although forecasters say March could be the high-water mark for inflation, consumer prices are likely to keep climbing at an uncomfortably fast pace for the rest of this year, continuing to put a particular strain on the families that can least afford it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=How+soaring+inflation+forces+stark+choices&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated April 12, 2022 at 8:36 AM ET\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From rising rent to higher heating bills, surging inflation impacts everybody, but it poses a particular hardship for people with little extra money to spare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, the Labor Department reported that \u003ca href=\"https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm\">consumer prices in March were 8.5% higher than a year ago\u003c/a> — the sharpest increase since December of 1981.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While no one likes paying more for haircuts or hamburgers, high inflation is especially painful for lower-income families, whose spending is heavily weighted toward necessities such as gasoline and groceries, which have seen some of the largest price hikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gasoline prices have jumped 48% in the last year while grocery prices are up 10%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Take Laura Kemp, a widow in Muldrow, Oklahoma, who says that her heating bill last month was $306, more than double the $125 she paid a year ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I live in a two-bedroom mobile home,\" she says. \"I don't understand what's going on. Every month it's increasing and it's taking up about a third of my income.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kemp feels like she's losing ground, priced out of even small indulgences like a McDonald's meal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"By the 10th of the month, I have $200 left,\" she says. \"The $200 a month is now going into my gas tank.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'm not making it to the end of the month anymore,\" she adds. \"Even getting a Big Mac now — a Big Mac meal is $8 — I can't afford it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the weather warms up, Kemp plans to plant a vegetable garden in hopes of defraying her food bill. She has picked out seeds for tomatoes, zucchini, peppers and eggplants, and she's eyeing some of the land her brother owns — where her mobile home also sits.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>From groceries to rent, prices are surging everywhere\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Charlene Rye, who retired after 28 years in the poultry industry — much of that time in chicken-processing plants — finds herself having to make hard choices after chicken prices rose sharply over the last year, like everything else in the grocery store.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You have to be a little more cautious in what you cook and things you make and things you buy,\" she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rye has been getting help from a food pantry in Sallisaw, Okla., which has gotten busier as prices have climbed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They open at 10 o'clock, and if you're there at 9, there's already people in line,\" she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Terrie Dean, it's the cost of housing that really stings. She and her teenage son are living temporarily in a motel in Sallisaw. She relies on disability payments of about $1,600 a month, which for now puts an apartment out of reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They want first month and deposit, not realizing that may be all this family brings in,\" said Dean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lower-income families typically spend about 45% of their income on housing, compared with 18% for upper-income families. Shelter costs have risen 5% in the last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Gas prices tend to hit especially hard\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The disparity for food and transportation is even larger — consuming 9% of high-income households' budgets but 26% for households that are low income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, gasoline prices jumped to $4.33 a gallon in March — an all-time high, not adjusting for inflation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increased gas prices can impact family ties. Soaring energy prices forced Patricia Bridgmon of Chicago to cut back on visits to her elderly mother in Hammond, Indiana, about 25 minutes away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's just horrible with the gas,\" she says. \"I usually go to see her three days out of the week. Now, it's down to one, because of the gas.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/dKHDavoB8IU'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/dKHDavoB8IU'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Kemp, the widow with the increased heating bill, has also cut back on driving to Fort Smith, Arkansas., about 35 minutes from her home in eastern Oklahoma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I love going to the art museums and thrift store shopping and just getting out,\" she said. \"But I can't even go anymore.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Rye, the retired poultry worker, has to weigh the cost of driving to a larger supermarket that's farther away against shopping closer to home, where prices are higher, even in good times.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Federal Reserve plans to fight inflation aggressively\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Federal Reserve officials are well aware of the toll that inflation is taking, especially on lower-income families, a point that Fed Gov. Lael Brainard highlighted in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/brainard20220405a.htm\">speech last week\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"While all Americans are confronting higher prices, the burden is particularly great for households with more limited resources,\" Brainard said. \"That is why getting inflation down is our most important task, while sustaining a recovery that includes everyone.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Fed began raising interest rates last month in an effort to tamp down consumer demand and bring prices under control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The central bank started slowly, raising rates by a quarter percentage point. But markets anticipate that the Fed will become more aggressive, with a half-point increase now widely expected at the next Fed meeting in early May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although forecasters say March could be the high-water mark for inflation, consumer prices are likely to keep climbing at an uncomfortably fast pace for the rest of this year, continuing to put a particular strain on the families that can least afford it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=How+soaring+inflation+forces+stark+choices&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "What to Do if You Test Positive for COVID at This Point in the Pandemic",
"title": "What to Do if You Test Positive for COVID at This Point in the Pandemic",
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"content": "\u003cp>COVID-19 has been around long enough that we are not even counting the waves anymore, but the virus and the tools we have to fight it keep evolving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the guidance seems to change just enough with each surge that it can leave even the most diligent among us feeling lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, more than two years into the pandemic, some parts of the U.S. are seeing \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/09/01/816707182/map-tracking-the-spread-of-the-coronavirus-in-the-u-s\">an uptick in cases \u003c/a>driven by the BA.2 subvariant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Celine Gounder is a senior fellow and editor-at-large for public health at Kaiser Health News and a former adviser to the Biden administration. She runs through the latest thinking on everything from at-home tests to isolation times, contact tracing and why we may be repeating the same mistakes we made with other diseases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Interview highlights\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On whether the rapid at-home tests work for BA.2\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rapid antigen tests do work to pick up omicron. This pattern that you see is really similar across all the variants, which is that there is usually a day or two delay between when you might test positive on a PCR versus when you might test positive on one of these at-home rapid antigen tests. But they do work to pick up an infection.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID=\"news_11898455,news_11909888,news_11909863\" label=\"Related COVID Resources\"]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On the expiration dates listed on rapid at-home tests\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I organize my tests in my drawer actually by expiration date, so I'm using the oldest ones first. So that's just a small tip there. But the tests probably are good for much longer than they're labeled for. And that's really a reflection of the fact that early on when they were first developed, we weren't quite sure how long they would be good for. And they probably do last probably, you know, in the order of months longer than what they're labeled to be good for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On when and how to seek treatment if you test positive\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To access treatment, you can go to \u003ca href=\"https://www.covid.gov/\">covid.gov\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.covid.gov/\">look up where in your area you can access Paxlovid and monoclonal antibodies\u003c/a>, what facilities currently stock them, and how you can go about getting that. If you already have a primary care physician, they can also help you navigate that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, we have a pretty short supply of treatment. And so we're really trying to target that supply to people in whom it would really have the most benefit. People who are young, healthy, who don't have significant symptoms are probably not going to end up in the hospital regardless. And so that's not the best use of that short supply that we currently have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On isolation times if you test positive\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What we're seeing is that people very often test positive for longer than five days. You have maybe about half of people who are negative by five days, but then the other half are positive out to even 12-14 days. And so I think the way to address that is repeat a test. If you're still positive, really try to stay at home. And if you absolutely cannot stay at home, that's a situation where you \u003cem>really \u003c/em>should be masking when you're around other people so that you're not infecting others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On the current state of contact tracing\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contact tracing efforts have largely been dismantled at this stage. And it's become even harder to do contact tracing now, especially if you're trying to use that as a way to prevent onward infection. And that's because the incubation period for COVID has gotten shorter and shorter with each variant. And so with omicron, the incubation period is only two to three days. And so that makes it really hard to try to track down the person that you might have infected and take measures to prevent on onward infection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I do think if you have been around people, and may have exposed them, I think it's just polite and good form to inform them so that they know they may want to get tested themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On federal funding for COVID measures drying up and whether this is a normal progression\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I guess it depends on what you call normal. Is it how we have addressed other diseases and fallen short? Absolutely, it is repeating those same mistakes. We've run out of money to reimburse providers for offering testing to uninsured patients. But it's not just testing. We've also run out of money to reimburse providers for treating uninsured patients, for vaccinating uninsured patients. And it's really unfortunate that we refuse to learn from previous experiences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I'm not going to tell Congress what to do here. But I think if our goal is to adapt and live with COVID in a way that this is not impacting our social lives or economic lives, our work, then it will mean doing things differently, doing things better, and I hope we will.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The audio for this story was produced by Megan Lim.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=What+to+do+if+you+test+positive+for+COVID+at+this+point+in+the+pandemic&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The coronavirus keeps evolving and so does the guidance for addressing it. As cases tick up in some parts of the country, here is the latest advice on everything from testing to treatment.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>COVID-19 has been around long enough that we are not even counting the waves anymore, but the virus and the tools we have to fight it keep evolving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the guidance seems to change just enough with each surge that it can leave even the most diligent among us feeling lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, more than two years into the pandemic, some parts of the U.S. are seeing \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/09/01/816707182/map-tracking-the-spread-of-the-coronavirus-in-the-u-s\">an uptick in cases \u003c/a>driven by the BA.2 subvariant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Celine Gounder is a senior fellow and editor-at-large for public health at Kaiser Health News and a former adviser to the Biden administration. She runs through the latest thinking on everything from at-home tests to isolation times, contact tracing and why we may be repeating the same mistakes we made with other diseases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Interview highlights\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On whether the rapid at-home tests work for BA.2\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rapid antigen tests do work to pick up omicron. This pattern that you see is really similar across all the variants, which is that there is usually a day or two delay between when you might test positive on a PCR versus when you might test positive on one of these at-home rapid antigen tests. But they do work to pick up an infection.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On the expiration dates listed on rapid at-home tests\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I organize my tests in my drawer actually by expiration date, so I'm using the oldest ones first. So that's just a small tip there. But the tests probably are good for much longer than they're labeled for. And that's really a reflection of the fact that early on when they were first developed, we weren't quite sure how long they would be good for. And they probably do last probably, you know, in the order of months longer than what they're labeled to be good for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On when and how to seek treatment if you test positive\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To access treatment, you can go to \u003ca href=\"https://www.covid.gov/\">covid.gov\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.covid.gov/\">look up where in your area you can access Paxlovid and monoclonal antibodies\u003c/a>, what facilities currently stock them, and how you can go about getting that. If you already have a primary care physician, they can also help you navigate that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, we have a pretty short supply of treatment. And so we're really trying to target that supply to people in whom it would really have the most benefit. People who are young, healthy, who don't have significant symptoms are probably not going to end up in the hospital regardless. And so that's not the best use of that short supply that we currently have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On isolation times if you test positive\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What we're seeing is that people very often test positive for longer than five days. You have maybe about half of people who are negative by five days, but then the other half are positive out to even 12-14 days. And so I think the way to address that is repeat a test. If you're still positive, really try to stay at home. And if you absolutely cannot stay at home, that's a situation where you \u003cem>really \u003c/em>should be masking when you're around other people so that you're not infecting others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On the current state of contact tracing\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contact tracing efforts have largely been dismantled at this stage. And it's become even harder to do contact tracing now, especially if you're trying to use that as a way to prevent onward infection. And that's because the incubation period for COVID has gotten shorter and shorter with each variant. And so with omicron, the incubation period is only two to three days. And so that makes it really hard to try to track down the person that you might have infected and take measures to prevent on onward infection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I do think if you have been around people, and may have exposed them, I think it's just polite and good form to inform them so that they know they may want to get tested themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On federal funding for COVID measures drying up and whether this is a normal progression\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I guess it depends on what you call normal. Is it how we have addressed other diseases and fallen short? Absolutely, it is repeating those same mistakes. We've run out of money to reimburse providers for offering testing to uninsured patients. But it's not just testing. We've also run out of money to reimburse providers for treating uninsured patients, for vaccinating uninsured patients. And it's really unfortunate that we refuse to learn from previous experiences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I'm not going to tell Congress what to do here. But I think if our goal is to adapt and live with COVID in a way that this is not impacting our social lives or economic lives, our work, then it will mean doing things differently, doing things better, and I hope we will.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The audio for this story was produced by Megan Lim.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=What+to+do+if+you+test+positive+for+COVID+at+this+point+in+the+pandemic&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Can San Francisco Use Lessons From Fighting COVID-19 to Reduce Fentanyl Overdose Deaths?",
"title": "Can San Francisco Use Lessons From Fighting COVID-19 to Reduce Fentanyl Overdose Deaths?",
"headTitle": "NPR | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco Mayor London Breed, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11807053/a-necessary-sacrifice-sf-mayor-explains-shelter-in-place-order\">whose early and robust moves to contain the coronavirus made the city something of a national model\u003c/a>, is now urgently trying to confront another public health crisis: drug overdoses and disorder in the city's Tenderloin neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past two years, \u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/sites/default/files/2021-01/2021%2001_OCME%20Overdose%20Report.pdf\">the city has seen more than 1,360 drug overdose fatalities\u003c/a> — more than double the total COVID-19 death toll. The majority of those deaths were in the Tenderloin and the nearby SoMa district, city data shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"What's so important is that we have solutions, and we don't just say, 'We don't like it, we don't want to see it,'\" Breed told NPR. \"This is about trying to help people, and that's exactly what we're going to keep fighting for.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11900195\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/NPR-fentanyl-5-1020x680.jpg\"]Breed announced an \"emergency declaration\" for the area last month, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itX1hvxXfAw\">saying drug deaths, open-air drug dealing, street chaos and violence there had gotten \"totally out of control.\"\u003c/a> She vowed \"tough love\" for those who break the law and expanded access to help for those with alcohol and substance use disorders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The declaration allowed the city to fast-track the creation of a \"linkage center\" that recently opened. It's a walk-in, one-stop shop for expanded city services, such as drug, alcohol and mental health services, as well as homelessness support that includes possibly a shelter bed and eventually permanent housing. At least, that's the hope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breed says she has no illusions that the new linkage center will quickly transform the Tenderloin. But she hopes it offers a new lifeline that meets people where they are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The fact is people who struggle with addiction, it's not as easy as they're just going to walk through the door and ask for help or we can't force them into treatment,\" she says. \"Part of the goal is to make sure that they know that there's a place where they won't be judged, and when they're ready for help or assistance, they can get help or assistance.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11904436\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11904436\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/GettyImages-1236267426-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A row of tents line the sidewalk of Jones Street in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/GettyImages-1236267426-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/GettyImages-1236267426-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/GettyImages-1236267426-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/GettyImages-1236267426-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/GettyImages-1236267426-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/GettyImages-1236267426-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/GettyImages-1236267426-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tents are seen on streets of the Tenderloin in San Francisco on Oct. 30, 2021. \u003ccite>(Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Another public health crisis\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Tenderloin's problems — homelessness, poverty, substance abuse and crime — have plagued the area for decades. And it's become even more a kind of containment zone for those challenges amid the steady rise of Bay Area tech wealth and its staggering inequality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the pandemic's dislocation mixed with the spread of a dangerously powerful synthetic opioid have recently made things here even worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"What is new here is fentanyl. That's the state of emergency,\" said San Francisco Supervisor Matt Haney of \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/stopoverdose/fentanyl/index.html#:~:text=Fentanyl%20is%20a%20synthetic%20opioid,nonfatal%20overdoses%20in%20the%20U.S.&text=There%20are%20two%20types%20of,Both%20are%20considered%20synthetic%20opioids.\">the drug that can be up to 50 times stronger than heroin\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Supervisor Matt Haney, District 6\"]'If you're smoking or shooting a fentanyl, that's like Russian roulette.'[/pullquote]Haney lives in and represents the Tenderloin. He points out the city is averaging nearly two overdose deaths a day. In 2021, almost \u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/sites/default/files/2021-01/2021%2001_OCME%20Overdose%20Report.pdf\">three-quarters of all the overdose deaths in the city involved fentanyl in some form\u003c/a>, often mixed with other drugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"If you're smoking or shooting a fentanyl, that's like Russian roulette. People are dying within minutes or seconds of buying drugs on a corner, and it has ripple effects throughout the entire neighborhood that are devastating,\" Haney said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says San Francisco's agile handling of the pandemic shows the city can do better in the Tenderloin. Government moved fast and forcefully to confront a health crisis. \"Coordination, resources, urgency, staffing, facilities,\" Haney said. \"Now we need all of that now if we are going to stop this drug epidemic.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emergency order signals City Hall's potentially sharp break from a reliance on a system of nonprofits that have long aided the vulnerable in the Tenderloin but that some critics say have become a kind of homeless services industrial complex. The agencies provide important short-term help — food, showers and other support services — but don't really move the needle on the larger systemic issues of substance use disorder, mental health or housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Let's be clear, this city spends more money on social services in the Tenderloin community than any other community in San Francisco,\" \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itX1hvxXfAw\">the mayor said\u003c/a>. \"So just pouring money into this or just doing the same thing is not going to give us a change.\"\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What Tenderloin residents see and hear\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>So far, residents and businesses in the neighborhood — and across much of the city — are backing the mayor's moves to \"take back our Tenderloin.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They're tired of open-air drug dealing, seeing other people suffer and die on the street from drug overdoses, and they're tired of crime in the Tenderloin,\" said Rene Colorado of the Tenderloin Merchants Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, he says, early fears that the city's declaration would lead to harassment of the unhoused or sweeps of tent camps have not materialized. He's hopeful this is the start of ending what he calls a sense of anarchy and danger afflicting too many of the neighborhood's streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That's what success would look like to me,\" Colorado said. \"It's tough because to do that, you need police, you need to make arrests. And that's something that for some reason or another people who don't live in the Tenderloin are uncomfortable with. But residents here don't want drug dealing here.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11904434\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1380px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11904434\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-02.jpg\" alt='Two people stand outside a business in the Tenderloin. The business has a sign that reads, \"Z Zoul Cafe Sudanese and Mediterranean Food.\"' width=\"1380\" height=\"923\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-02.jpg 1380w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-02-800x535.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-02-1020x682.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-02-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1380px) 100vw, 1380px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">More than a month into the city's emergency order, local restaurant owner Aref Elgaali, right, says he's already seeing modest, yet positive, changes in the Tenderloin. \u003ccite>(Eric Westervelt/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The mayor's order certainly risks undermining San Francisco's reputation for compassion and freewheeling tolerance, an impression that's more myth than reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Despite the view from the outside world, the governance of San Francisco today is not the Haight-Ashbury liberal '60s version that I think people imagine,\" said criminal defense attorney John Hamasaki. He's a member of the \u003ca href=\"https://sfgov.org/policecommission/\">San Francisco Police Commission\u003c/a>, a police oversight and policy watch group appointed by the mayor and Board of Supervisors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hamasaki remains only cautiously optimistic that the emergency plan will prove successful and mark a bigger shift toward non-police responses to the problems of the Tenderloin and throughout the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"John Hamasaki, member, SF Police Commission\"]'Ultimately, there are better-trained responders to deal with a lot of the low-level police calls.'[/pullquote]\"Historically, and this has never been fair to police, we have said, 'You are in charge of cleaning up all of society's problems,'\" he said, \"so you don't have to say 'defund the police' to believe that we can address society's problems by employing the proper professionals. Ultimately, there are better-trained responders to deal with a lot of the low-level police calls,\" especially those that involve mental illness and substance abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Business owner Aref Elgaali says that more than a month into the city's emergency order, he's already seeing modest, yet positive, changes. He runs a Sudanese restaurant in the Tenderloin and is active in the local business community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We want to see secure families,\" he says, pointing to a group of pre-K children and their teachers crossing the street near his restaurant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Asking for police, more enforcement, is to keep those [kids] safe, to tell them that, yeah, the Tenderloin is still a place that we can raise our kids on,\" Elgaali says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many unhoused people in the area, those most affected by the policy shift, say that so far, nothing has really changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Hell, no!\" says Shy Brown when asked whether she has seen changes or even heard about new options. Brown says she's lived in the Tenderloin — mostly on the streets — for about a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She's sitting half in, half out of a small sidewalk tent as pigeons busily pick at remnants of a handout dinner. \"I wanna know what the strategy plan is and how we gonna execute it, you see what I'm saying?\" Brown says. \"And I don't see that happening. I just don't. No, it's not gonna work.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11904435\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1380px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11904435\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-01.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing a winter jacket and a face mask sits on the door of a camping tent that is set up on a sidewalk in San Francisco.\" width=\"1380\" height=\"920\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-01.jpg 1380w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-01-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-01-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-01-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1380px) 100vw, 1380px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shy Brown, outside her Tenderloin encampment, is skeptical about the city's proposals to help people who struggle with substance use disorder. \u003ccite>(Eric Westervelt/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Longer-term programs already in place have brought slow progress\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The city, in partnership with a nonprofit, has boosted its program of \"community safety ambassadors,\" people who hit the streets to clean up garbage and deter drug dealing. And the city has greatly expanded distribution of Narcan, the lifesaving opioid-reversal drug, in easy-to-use nasal spray kits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the biggest developments — launched by the mayor and city leaders during the pandemic — are \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11894981/how-san-franciscos-street-overdose-response-team-is-trying-to-bring-clinical-care-to-the-streets\">Street Crisis Response and specialized Overdose Response teams\u003c/a> made up of specially trained and organized paramedics and clinicians from the fire and health departments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are some modest signs that the city's overall efforts on overdoses are paying off. Preliminary data for 2021 \u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/resource/2020/ocme-accidental-overdose-reports\">shows that accidental overdose deaths in 2021 were down about 7%\u003c/a>, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. That marks the first overdose death decline in the city since 2018, following years of an upward trend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='homelessness']But a seamless coordination between the city's new response teams and the police, so far, appears more aspirational than real. In a recent encounter, police arrive to check on an unhoused man in serious distress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'm sure there might be some mental health issues,\" says police Sgt. J. Emanuel as he and fellow officers check on the man. But there's really only so much they can do, he says. \"I mean, we'll do our evaluation, but if he doesn't fit the criteria for anything, then that's about all we can do: Check on him, offer some resources. That's about it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pandemic greatly worsened the longstanding problems here. \"It really increased homelessness and decreased economic activity,\" said Katie Conry, executive director of the Tenderloin Museum, which is trying to tell a more nuanced story about the area's colorful history, she says, including its pioneering role in the early fight for LGBTQ+ rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The area \"is starting to bounce back [from the pandemic],\" she says, \"but we've got some ways to go to make it and keep it a vibrant, safe neighborhood for everyone.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent day a man power-washes the street after a free lunch giveaway near \u003ca href=\"https://www.glide.org/about/\">Glide, a nonprofit that provides daily meals and other services to the unhoused and other people who need them\u003c/a> in the Tenderloin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jean Cooper, chief impact and strategy officer with Glide, hopes the emergency plan — and new linkage center — result in real change. But she also worries it's just another patch addressing only surface symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The reality is that the drivers to what we see on the streets here are deep-seated systemic issues that not only San Francisco struggles with, but major cities across the United States are struggling with right now,\" Cooper says, \"and it's around a lack of affordable housing, a lack of access to affordable, quality health care, and that includes mental health and substance use treatment.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To underscore the challenges, as if on cue, a man stumbles down the middle of the street in a daze. He's mumbling. He's not wearing a shirt or shoes, and his pants are filthy and falling down. He's unresponsive when people approach him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Jean Cooper, Glide\"]'The drivers to what we see on the streets here are deep-seated systemic issues that not only San Francisco struggles with.'[/pullquote]\"Our staff will get him a pair of shoes and a shirt, you know, give him something to eat,\" Cooper says, watching the man teeter nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But could her agency or the other nonprofits on the street get the shirtless and nearly passed-out man into a treatment bed or temporary housing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We don't have access to beds,\" Cooper says. \"You know, so it's not like we can actually get someone into a bed directly.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And maybe that's really the challenge: How does the city turn its \"emergency\" order and linkage center into a viable strategy for long-term solutions to long-standing problems, ones that are more expensive and more complicated than the daily wave of triage in the Tenderloin?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The measure of success is the number of people that we're able to help get off the streets into housing,\" Mayor Breed said, \"the number of people we're able to help get into treatment and get off of drugs. My hope is that we will really change and save lives here.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Last month, San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared an emergency in the Tenderloin, clearing the way for a new \"linkage center\" to connect unhoused people with services. Opinions on its effectiveness vary, from unhoused people, business owners and nonprofit leaders in the Tenderloin to Breed herself.",
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"description": "Last month, San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared an emergency in the Tenderloin, clearing the way for a new "linkage center" to connect unhoused people with services. Opinions on its effectiveness vary, from unhoused people, business owners and nonprofit leaders in the Tenderloin to Breed herself.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San Francisco Mayor London Breed, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11807053/a-necessary-sacrifice-sf-mayor-explains-shelter-in-place-order\">whose early and robust moves to contain the coronavirus made the city something of a national model\u003c/a>, is now urgently trying to confront another public health crisis: drug overdoses and disorder in the city's Tenderloin neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past two years, \u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/sites/default/files/2021-01/2021%2001_OCME%20Overdose%20Report.pdf\">the city has seen more than 1,360 drug overdose fatalities\u003c/a> — more than double the total COVID-19 death toll. The majority of those deaths were in the Tenderloin and the nearby SoMa district, city data shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"What's so important is that we have solutions, and we don't just say, 'We don't like it, we don't want to see it,'\" Breed told NPR. \"This is about trying to help people, and that's exactly what we're going to keep fighting for.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Breed announced an \"emergency declaration\" for the area last month, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itX1hvxXfAw\">saying drug deaths, open-air drug dealing, street chaos and violence there had gotten \"totally out of control.\"\u003c/a> She vowed \"tough love\" for those who break the law and expanded access to help for those with alcohol and substance use disorders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The declaration allowed the city to fast-track the creation of a \"linkage center\" that recently opened. It's a walk-in, one-stop shop for expanded city services, such as drug, alcohol and mental health services, as well as homelessness support that includes possibly a shelter bed and eventually permanent housing. At least, that's the hope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breed says she has no illusions that the new linkage center will quickly transform the Tenderloin. But she hopes it offers a new lifeline that meets people where they are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The fact is people who struggle with addiction, it's not as easy as they're just going to walk through the door and ask for help or we can't force them into treatment,\" she says. \"Part of the goal is to make sure that they know that there's a place where they won't be judged, and when they're ready for help or assistance, they can get help or assistance.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11904436\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11904436\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/GettyImages-1236267426-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A row of tents line the sidewalk of Jones Street in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/GettyImages-1236267426-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/GettyImages-1236267426-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/GettyImages-1236267426-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/GettyImages-1236267426-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/GettyImages-1236267426-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/GettyImages-1236267426-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/GettyImages-1236267426-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tents are seen on streets of the Tenderloin in San Francisco on Oct. 30, 2021. \u003ccite>(Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Another public health crisis\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Tenderloin's problems — homelessness, poverty, substance abuse and crime — have plagued the area for decades. And it's become even more a kind of containment zone for those challenges amid the steady rise of Bay Area tech wealth and its staggering inequality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the pandemic's dislocation mixed with the spread of a dangerously powerful synthetic opioid have recently made things here even worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"What is new here is fentanyl. That's the state of emergency,\" said San Francisco Supervisor Matt Haney of \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/stopoverdose/fentanyl/index.html#:~:text=Fentanyl%20is%20a%20synthetic%20opioid,nonfatal%20overdoses%20in%20the%20U.S.&text=There%20are%20two%20types%20of,Both%20are%20considered%20synthetic%20opioids.\">the drug that can be up to 50 times stronger than heroin\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "'If you're smoking or shooting a fentanyl, that's like Russian roulette.'",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Haney lives in and represents the Tenderloin. He points out the city is averaging nearly two overdose deaths a day. In 2021, almost \u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/sites/default/files/2021-01/2021%2001_OCME%20Overdose%20Report.pdf\">three-quarters of all the overdose deaths in the city involved fentanyl in some form\u003c/a>, often mixed with other drugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"If you're smoking or shooting a fentanyl, that's like Russian roulette. People are dying within minutes or seconds of buying drugs on a corner, and it has ripple effects throughout the entire neighborhood that are devastating,\" Haney said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says San Francisco's agile handling of the pandemic shows the city can do better in the Tenderloin. Government moved fast and forcefully to confront a health crisis. \"Coordination, resources, urgency, staffing, facilities,\" Haney said. \"Now we need all of that now if we are going to stop this drug epidemic.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emergency order signals City Hall's potentially sharp break from a reliance on a system of nonprofits that have long aided the vulnerable in the Tenderloin but that some critics say have become a kind of homeless services industrial complex. The agencies provide important short-term help — food, showers and other support services — but don't really move the needle on the larger systemic issues of substance use disorder, mental health or housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Let's be clear, this city spends more money on social services in the Tenderloin community than any other community in San Francisco,\" \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itX1hvxXfAw\">the mayor said\u003c/a>. \"So just pouring money into this or just doing the same thing is not going to give us a change.\"\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What Tenderloin residents see and hear\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>So far, residents and businesses in the neighborhood — and across much of the city — are backing the mayor's moves to \"take back our Tenderloin.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They're tired of open-air drug dealing, seeing other people suffer and die on the street from drug overdoses, and they're tired of crime in the Tenderloin,\" said Rene Colorado of the Tenderloin Merchants Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, he says, early fears that the city's declaration would lead to harassment of the unhoused or sweeps of tent camps have not materialized. He's hopeful this is the start of ending what he calls a sense of anarchy and danger afflicting too many of the neighborhood's streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That's what success would look like to me,\" Colorado said. \"It's tough because to do that, you need police, you need to make arrests. And that's something that for some reason or another people who don't live in the Tenderloin are uncomfortable with. But residents here don't want drug dealing here.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11904434\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1380px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11904434\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-02.jpg\" alt='Two people stand outside a business in the Tenderloin. The business has a sign that reads, \"Z Zoul Cafe Sudanese and Mediterranean Food.\"' width=\"1380\" height=\"923\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-02.jpg 1380w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-02-800x535.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-02-1020x682.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-02-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1380px) 100vw, 1380px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">More than a month into the city's emergency order, local restaurant owner Aref Elgaali, right, says he's already seeing modest, yet positive, changes in the Tenderloin. \u003ccite>(Eric Westervelt/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The mayor's order certainly risks undermining San Francisco's reputation for compassion and freewheeling tolerance, an impression that's more myth than reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Despite the view from the outside world, the governance of San Francisco today is not the Haight-Ashbury liberal '60s version that I think people imagine,\" said criminal defense attorney John Hamasaki. He's a member of the \u003ca href=\"https://sfgov.org/policecommission/\">San Francisco Police Commission\u003c/a>, a police oversight and policy watch group appointed by the mayor and Board of Supervisors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hamasaki remains only cautiously optimistic that the emergency plan will prove successful and mark a bigger shift toward non-police responses to the problems of the Tenderloin and throughout the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\"Historically, and this has never been fair to police, we have said, 'You are in charge of cleaning up all of society's problems,'\" he said, \"so you don't have to say 'defund the police' to believe that we can address society's problems by employing the proper professionals. Ultimately, there are better-trained responders to deal with a lot of the low-level police calls,\" especially those that involve mental illness and substance abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Business owner Aref Elgaali says that more than a month into the city's emergency order, he's already seeing modest, yet positive, changes. He runs a Sudanese restaurant in the Tenderloin and is active in the local business community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We want to see secure families,\" he says, pointing to a group of pre-K children and their teachers crossing the street near his restaurant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Asking for police, more enforcement, is to keep those [kids] safe, to tell them that, yeah, the Tenderloin is still a place that we can raise our kids on,\" Elgaali says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many unhoused people in the area, those most affected by the policy shift, say that so far, nothing has really changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Hell, no!\" says Shy Brown when asked whether she has seen changes or even heard about new options. Brown says she's lived in the Tenderloin — mostly on the streets — for about a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She's sitting half in, half out of a small sidewalk tent as pigeons busily pick at remnants of a handout dinner. \"I wanna know what the strategy plan is and how we gonna execute it, you see what I'm saying?\" Brown says. \"And I don't see that happening. I just don't. No, it's not gonna work.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11904435\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1380px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11904435\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-01.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing a winter jacket and a face mask sits on the door of a camping tent that is set up on a sidewalk in San Francisco.\" width=\"1380\" height=\"920\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-01.jpg 1380w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-01-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-01-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/TL-NPR-020721-01-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1380px) 100vw, 1380px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shy Brown, outside her Tenderloin encampment, is skeptical about the city's proposals to help people who struggle with substance use disorder. \u003ccite>(Eric Westervelt/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Longer-term programs already in place have brought slow progress\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The city, in partnership with a nonprofit, has boosted its program of \"community safety ambassadors,\" people who hit the streets to clean up garbage and deter drug dealing. And the city has greatly expanded distribution of Narcan, the lifesaving opioid-reversal drug, in easy-to-use nasal spray kits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the biggest developments — launched by the mayor and city leaders during the pandemic — are \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11894981/how-san-franciscos-street-overdose-response-team-is-trying-to-bring-clinical-care-to-the-streets\">Street Crisis Response and specialized Overdose Response teams\u003c/a> made up of specially trained and organized paramedics and clinicians from the fire and health departments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are some modest signs that the city's overall efforts on overdoses are paying off. Preliminary data for 2021 \u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/resource/2020/ocme-accidental-overdose-reports\">shows that accidental overdose deaths in 2021 were down about 7%\u003c/a>, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. That marks the first overdose death decline in the city since 2018, following years of an upward trend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But a seamless coordination between the city's new response teams and the police, so far, appears more aspirational than real. In a recent encounter, police arrive to check on an unhoused man in serious distress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'm sure there might be some mental health issues,\" says police Sgt. J. Emanuel as he and fellow officers check on the man. But there's really only so much they can do, he says. \"I mean, we'll do our evaluation, but if he doesn't fit the criteria for anything, then that's about all we can do: Check on him, offer some resources. That's about it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pandemic greatly worsened the longstanding problems here. \"It really increased homelessness and decreased economic activity,\" said Katie Conry, executive director of the Tenderloin Museum, which is trying to tell a more nuanced story about the area's colorful history, she says, including its pioneering role in the early fight for LGBTQ+ rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The area \"is starting to bounce back [from the pandemic],\" she says, \"but we've got some ways to go to make it and keep it a vibrant, safe neighborhood for everyone.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent day a man power-washes the street after a free lunch giveaway near \u003ca href=\"https://www.glide.org/about/\">Glide, a nonprofit that provides daily meals and other services to the unhoused and other people who need them\u003c/a> in the Tenderloin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jean Cooper, chief impact and strategy officer with Glide, hopes the emergency plan — and new linkage center — result in real change. But she also worries it's just another patch addressing only surface symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The reality is that the drivers to what we see on the streets here are deep-seated systemic issues that not only San Francisco struggles with, but major cities across the United States are struggling with right now,\" Cooper says, \"and it's around a lack of affordable housing, a lack of access to affordable, quality health care, and that includes mental health and substance use treatment.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To underscore the challenges, as if on cue, a man stumbles down the middle of the street in a daze. He's mumbling. He's not wearing a shirt or shoes, and his pants are filthy and falling down. He's unresponsive when people approach him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\"Our staff will get him a pair of shoes and a shirt, you know, give him something to eat,\" Cooper says, watching the man teeter nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But could her agency or the other nonprofits on the street get the shirtless and nearly passed-out man into a treatment bed or temporary housing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We don't have access to beds,\" Cooper says. \"You know, so it's not like we can actually get someone into a bed directly.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And maybe that's really the challenge: How does the city turn its \"emergency\" order and linkage center into a viable strategy for long-term solutions to long-standing problems, ones that are more expensive and more complicated than the daily wave of triage in the Tenderloin?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The measure of success is the number of people that we're able to help get off the streets into housing,\" Mayor Breed said, \"the number of people we're able to help get into treatment and get off of drugs. My hope is that we will really change and save lives here.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "COVID Tests: From Rapid Home Tests to PCRs, Here's What to Know Right Now",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated Wednesday, Jan. 19.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an ideal world, the U.S. would be awash in COVID tests. Anyone exposed to the coronavirus could self-test or go to a lab or clinic if necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But right now, self-tests are in short supply in many parts of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11898455\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52826_GettyImages-1227768883-qut.jpg\"]Test manufacturers are ramping up production, so hopefully — at some point — you won’t be seeing those “no tests available” signs at your local pharmacy or have to wait a week or more for tests ordered online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11900296/cdc-recommends-shorter-covid-isolation-and-quarantine-periods\">the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has changed its testing guidelines in the wake of the omicron surge\u003c/a> in the U.S. — and public health researchers are critical of some of the recommendations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result is a lot of confusion, so we’ve compiled some frequently asked questions about COVID-19 tests. Don’t have time to go through the whole guide? Click the links below to skip to a specific section:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#types\">\u003cstrong>What types of COVID tests are there?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#difference\">What’s the difference between antigen and PCR tests?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#time\">\u003cstrong>When is the right time to get tested?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#many\">How many tests should I take?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#before\">\u003cstrong>Should I get tested before seeing people?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#accurate\">If I test negative, how accurate is that result?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#positive\">\u003cstrong>What happens if I test positive?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#omicron\">Do the tests detect omicron?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901097\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901097\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing scrubs and a face mask and a plastic protector sticks a nose swab into another person's nose.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Merline Jimene administers a COVID-19 test swab to a person at a testing site located in the international terminal at Los Angeles International Airport amid a surge in omicron variant cases on Dec. 21, 2021. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"types\">\u003c/a>What types of COVID tests are there?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There’s the rapid, do-it-yourself home test, which involves swabbing your nose and takes about 15 minutes to display a result on a test strip provided in the kit. These cost about $20 for a package of two tests. They’re known as antigen tests — antigens are basically the proteins from the virus that the rapid tests can identify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the PCR test performed in a lab or clinic. PCR stands for polymerase chain reaction, which is a technique for amplifying trace amounts of virus DNA. Depending on how busy your local technicians are, you may have PCR results within a day, or it may take several days. A PCR test usually costs about $150 without insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a third type of test: a blood test that looks for antibodies after you’ve been sick, and some samples can even be taken from a finger prick at home and sent to a lab. But they are not used to diagnose COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cost to diagnose COVID-19 is an eligible medical expense for tax purposes, which means you can use your health flexible spending account (health FSA), health savings account (HSA), health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) or Archer medical savings account (Archer MSA) to\u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-cost-of-home-testing-for-covid-19-is-eligible-medical-expense-reimbursable-under-fsas-hsas\"> pay for or get reimbursed for an at-home COVID test kit\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most insurance policies cover PCR and rapid tests administered by health providers. As of Jan. 15, people with private health insurance can get reimbursed by their insurer for the cost of up to eight at-home COVID tests per month. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11902122/at-home-covid-test-reimbursement-from-blue-shield-to-kaiser-how-to-get-your-health-insurance-to-pay-you-back\">Read more about getting reimbursed for at-home COVID tests through your health insurer.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You also now can \u003ca href=\"https://www.covidtests.gov/\">order free at-home COVID-19 tests online\u003c/a> from the federal government and the United States Postal Service. The White House program, which went live Jan. 18, offers four at-home COVID tests to every household in the United States, to be shipped by USPS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tests and shipping are completely free of charge. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11901928/you-can-now-order-free-covid-at-home-tests-via-usps\">Read more about how to order free tests through USPS.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899398\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11899398\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A gloved blue hands held by a nurse in a blue robe hold a small white COVID-19 testing vial and swab.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1291\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut-800x538.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut-1020x686.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut-1536x1033.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A registered nurse stirs a nasal swab in testing solution after administering a COVID-19 test at Sameday Testing on July 14, 2021, in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"difference\">\u003c/a>What’s the difference between antigen and PCR tests?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The PCR test is much more accurate at identifying an infection because it can amplify traces of the virus — in other words, even if you have a small amount of virus, it can detect it. So it can tell whether you’re infected even a day or so after you develop what appear to be COVID-19 symptoms or a few days after exposure to someone with COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The antigen tests don’t magnify the amount of virus in the sample you take, so you need a pretty high viral load to test positive. As \u003ca href=\"https://keck.usc.edu/faculty-search/susan-butler-wu/\">Susan Butler-Wu\u003c/a>, associate professor of clinical pathology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, puts it: “It’s a test for [determining whether you have] a lot of virus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11900053\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257420-1020x680.jpg\"]So you might test negative on a home test even if you are infected — at the beginning or the end of your illness, for example, when you don’t have a lot of virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The more urgent question, says Butler-Wu, is: “Which test can you get?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have symptoms and likely have been exposed to the virus by traveling or socializing, a positive antigen test is probably enough evidence that you have the virus, says \u003ca href=\"https://profiles.stanford.edu/abraar-karan\">Dr. Abraar Karan\u003c/a>, an infectious disease physician at Stanford University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for PCR tests, availability depends on the demand in your community. Some testing facilities are slammed, with few appointments available and hours-long waits even if you can snag an appointment. And it can take several days to get results from a PCR test.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"time\">\u003c/a>When should I test?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The answer depends on whether you can get a test — and what you’re using it for. A test can be used to tell you whether you have COVID-19 — for instance, if you have symptoms or you’ve been around someone who tested positive. And they also can be used as an added precaution before socializing (which we’ll discuss a couple of questions down).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19, you should self-test. But not right away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’ve been exposed, wait a few days because testing right away could be negative,” Karan says. After you wait, “then we’ll be able to detect virus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends self-testing either when symptoms develop or, if you aren’t showing symptoms, five to seven days after exposure. That would give enough time for the body to develop a viral load that can be detected by a home test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the omicron variant, there have been reports that rapid tests are negative during the first day or two of symptoms. So even if you’re showing symptoms, you might want to wait a day or two to take the first test, especially if you have a limited supply of tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890072\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1029px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11890072\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/RS46093_001_KQED_SanFrancisco_COVIDTesting_11302020-qut-e1632780302268.jpg\" alt=\"A gloved hand holds up a small, white envelope with pink lettering: a rapid COVID-19 test.\" width=\"1029\" height=\"686\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A rapid COVID-19 test held by a health care professional at a Unidos En Salud testing site, a collaboration between UCSF and the Latino Task Force, during a post-holiday COVID-19 outreach event on 24th and Mission streets in San Francisco on Nov. 30, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"many\">\u003c/a>How many tests should I take?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>At least two.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why test twice? Home tests are most accurate when you use them serially — at least two over the course of a few days. And if you have a limited supply of home tests, you will want to aim for the time when you are most likely to get an accurate result — say, on Day 5 and Day 7 after exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These tests absolutely have to be used serially, to be perfectly honest. They don’t have the sensitivity to be used one-and-done if they’re negative,” Butler-Wu says. “By repeating it, you’re allowing the virus to potentially grow more to the point, essentially, where now you can detect it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If that test is negative, all that’s telling you is: At this point in time, you don’t have a ton of virus in you,” Karan says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"before\">\u003c/a>Should I get tested before seeing people?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>“If you’re going to visit Grandma or something, yeah, I would probably rapid-test before that,” Karan says. “Or if I’m going somewhere where there’s going be a lot of people. If I’m contagious that day [and don’t know it], I could infect tons of people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A positive test result will tell you to cancel your plans and stay home and isolate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But negative results don’t mean it’s time to rip the mask off in social settings. Rapid tests could be negative before a party and positive during it, just a few hours later — even if you’re vaccinated and boosted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To say that the negative test means being indoors unmasked — I think that needs to get rethought, pronto,” Butler-Wu says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Omicron has changed the game completely,” she says. “We know from Christmas soirees that occurred in European places that those exact scenarios happened: vaccinated people, negative tests and there was still spread.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11900757\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11900757\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS46111_019_KQED_SanFrancisco_COVIDTesting_11302020-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Two people are shown. One is wearing medical scrubs and a face mask, as they perform a COVID-19, the other is a person who ahs taken their mask off to receive the test in their nose.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS46111_019_KQED_SanFrancisco_COVIDTesting_11302020-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS46111_019_KQED_SanFrancisco_COVIDTesting_11302020-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS46111_019_KQED_SanFrancisco_COVIDTesting_11302020-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS46111_019_KQED_SanFrancisco_COVIDTesting_11302020-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS46111_019_KQED_SanFrancisco_COVIDTesting_11302020-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A health care worker tests a patient for COVID-19 at a testing site on 24th and Mission streets in San Francisco on Nov. 30, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"accurate\">\u003c/a>If I test negative, how accurate is that result?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There can be false negatives, especially soon after exposure when not much virus is present in your body, or if the virus is replicating somewhere other than where you were swabbed — for instance, in your throat instead of your nose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, that doesn’t mean you should use an at-home test to swab in other places that aren’t your nose. A recent viral \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@angelapharmd/video/7049615931995147566\">TikTok video encourages viewers to swab their throats instead\u003c/a>, but emergency physician \u003ca href=\"https://emergency.ucsf.edu/people/mary-mercer-md\">Mary Mercer\u003c/a> says that is not necessary. She’s part of the COVID-19 task force with the San Francisco Department of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You need to follow the directions for whichever at-home test you have,” she says. “You do not need to swab your throat in addition to your nose if it’s a nasal test.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you tested negative and feel the result isn’t accurate, it may be a good idea to test again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11890031\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS52992_GettyImages-1237563534-qut.jpg\"]According to a pre-omicron study, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7003e3.htm\">the Abbott BinaxNOW antigen test was 92.6% accurate at detecting the virus in symptomatic people\u003c/a> and 78.6% accurate in asymptomatic people, compared to PCR results in cases where people had viable virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is also possible to have a false negative from a PCR test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any test is a snapshot of what’s happening in the part of your body that was sampled at that moment. That’s all it tells you,” Butler-Wu says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PCR tests are more sensitive and can detect lower amounts of the virus in the body, she says. However, if you were just exposed and are in the very early stages of incubation, you probably haven’t reached what doctors call the “limit of detection.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/testing/diagnostic-testing.html\">the CDC recommends that people get tested at least five days after a possible exposure, or when they start noticing symptoms\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"positive\">\u003c/a>What happens if I test positive?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When you test positive, you should isolate yourself for a minimum of five days and wear a mask for five days after that, according to the CDC. If you have rapid tests, you can use them after five days to see whether you’re still positive, which would mean you need to continue isolating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you tested at a clinic, they will report the results to the local public health department for you. But if you test positive on a home test, you’re not required to report that to the department of public health, says Mercer, the emergency physician from San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='More COVID-19 Coverage' tag='omicron']“We do recommend that if you have a positive test, you call your provider, your personal physician or provider to let them know that you’re positive,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re worried that you have a false positive, those are pretty rare on PCR tests and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/12/12/1063483612/at-home-covid-19-tests-have-room-for-improvement\">usually happen because of contaminated samples, research has found\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/letters-health-care-providers/potential-false-positive-results-antigen-tests-rapid-detection-sars-cov-2-letter-clinical-laboratory\">false positive on an antigen test is possible but fairly unlikely\u003c/a> if the test is taken correctly, says Butler-Wu, especially if you develop symptoms and you know you’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19. And a lot of people are being exposed at this current time of great spread to the omicron and delta variants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If “there’s a bunch of COVID and I’m symptomatic, it’s probably a true positive,” Butler-Wu says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"omicron\">\u003c/a>Do the tests detect omicron?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Rapid tests \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/sars-cov-2-viral-mutations-impact-covid-19-tests#omicronvariantimpact\">may not be as accurate for omicron\u003c/a>, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in late December — but they haven’t released data yet on why they are less accurate and to what degree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FDA also has warned that \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/sars-cov-2-viral-mutations-impact-covid-19-tests\">three types of PCR tests may not detect omicron\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of these issues, if you’re testing at home after symptoms or an exposure to someone with COVID-19, the use of two tests spaced a few days apart is critical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post includes reporting from KQED’s Kevin Stark, Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí and Carly Severn.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "What is the best COVID-19 test? When should I get tested? How many tests should I take? Do tests detect omicron? KQED has the latest information on coronavirus testing during the omicron surge. ",
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"title": "COVID Tests: From Rapid Home Tests to PCRs, Here's What to Know Right Now | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated Wednesday, Jan. 19.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an ideal world, the U.S. would be awash in COVID tests. Anyone exposed to the coronavirus could self-test or go to a lab or clinic if necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But right now, self-tests are in short supply in many parts of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Test manufacturers are ramping up production, so hopefully — at some point — you won’t be seeing those “no tests available” signs at your local pharmacy or have to wait a week or more for tests ordered online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11900296/cdc-recommends-shorter-covid-isolation-and-quarantine-periods\">the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has changed its testing guidelines in the wake of the omicron surge\u003c/a> in the U.S. — and public health researchers are critical of some of the recommendations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result is a lot of confusion, so we’ve compiled some frequently asked questions about COVID-19 tests. Don’t have time to go through the whole guide? Click the links below to skip to a specific section:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#types\">\u003cstrong>What types of COVID tests are there?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#difference\">What’s the difference between antigen and PCR tests?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#time\">\u003cstrong>When is the right time to get tested?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#many\">How many tests should I take?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#before\">\u003cstrong>Should I get tested before seeing people?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#accurate\">If I test negative, how accurate is that result?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#positive\">\u003cstrong>What happens if I test positive?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#omicron\">Do the tests detect omicron?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901097\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901097\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing scrubs and a face mask and a plastic protector sticks a nose swab into another person's nose.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Merline Jimene administers a COVID-19 test swab to a person at a testing site located in the international terminal at Los Angeles International Airport amid a surge in omicron variant cases on Dec. 21, 2021. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"types\">\u003c/a>What types of COVID tests are there?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There’s the rapid, do-it-yourself home test, which involves swabbing your nose and takes about 15 minutes to display a result on a test strip provided in the kit. These cost about $20 for a package of two tests. They’re known as antigen tests — antigens are basically the proteins from the virus that the rapid tests can identify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the PCR test performed in a lab or clinic. PCR stands for polymerase chain reaction, which is a technique for amplifying trace amounts of virus DNA. Depending on how busy your local technicians are, you may have PCR results within a day, or it may take several days. A PCR test usually costs about $150 without insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a third type of test: a blood test that looks for antibodies after you’ve been sick, and some samples can even be taken from a finger prick at home and sent to a lab. But they are not used to diagnose COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cost to diagnose COVID-19 is an eligible medical expense for tax purposes, which means you can use your health flexible spending account (health FSA), health savings account (HSA), health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) or Archer medical savings account (Archer MSA) to\u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-cost-of-home-testing-for-covid-19-is-eligible-medical-expense-reimbursable-under-fsas-hsas\"> pay for or get reimbursed for an at-home COVID test kit\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most insurance policies cover PCR and rapid tests administered by health providers. As of Jan. 15, people with private health insurance can get reimbursed by their insurer for the cost of up to eight at-home COVID tests per month. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11902122/at-home-covid-test-reimbursement-from-blue-shield-to-kaiser-how-to-get-your-health-insurance-to-pay-you-back\">Read more about getting reimbursed for at-home COVID tests through your health insurer.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You also now can \u003ca href=\"https://www.covidtests.gov/\">order free at-home COVID-19 tests online\u003c/a> from the federal government and the United States Postal Service. The White House program, which went live Jan. 18, offers four at-home COVID tests to every household in the United States, to be shipped by USPS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tests and shipping are completely free of charge. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11901928/you-can-now-order-free-covid-at-home-tests-via-usps\">Read more about how to order free tests through USPS.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899398\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11899398\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A gloved blue hands held by a nurse in a blue robe hold a small white COVID-19 testing vial and swab.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1291\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut-800x538.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut-1020x686.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut-1536x1033.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A registered nurse stirs a nasal swab in testing solution after administering a COVID-19 test at Sameday Testing on July 14, 2021, in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"difference\">\u003c/a>What’s the difference between antigen and PCR tests?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The PCR test is much more accurate at identifying an infection because it can amplify traces of the virus — in other words, even if you have a small amount of virus, it can detect it. So it can tell whether you’re infected even a day or so after you develop what appear to be COVID-19 symptoms or a few days after exposure to someone with COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The antigen tests don’t magnify the amount of virus in the sample you take, so you need a pretty high viral load to test positive. As \u003ca href=\"https://keck.usc.edu/faculty-search/susan-butler-wu/\">Susan Butler-Wu\u003c/a>, associate professor of clinical pathology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, puts it: “It’s a test for [determining whether you have] a lot of virus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>So you might test negative on a home test even if you are infected — at the beginning or the end of your illness, for example, when you don’t have a lot of virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The more urgent question, says Butler-Wu, is: “Which test can you get?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have symptoms and likely have been exposed to the virus by traveling or socializing, a positive antigen test is probably enough evidence that you have the virus, says \u003ca href=\"https://profiles.stanford.edu/abraar-karan\">Dr. Abraar Karan\u003c/a>, an infectious disease physician at Stanford University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for PCR tests, availability depends on the demand in your community. Some testing facilities are slammed, with few appointments available and hours-long waits even if you can snag an appointment. And it can take several days to get results from a PCR test.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"time\">\u003c/a>When should I test?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The answer depends on whether you can get a test — and what you’re using it for. A test can be used to tell you whether you have COVID-19 — for instance, if you have symptoms or you’ve been around someone who tested positive. And they also can be used as an added precaution before socializing (which we’ll discuss a couple of questions down).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19, you should self-test. But not right away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’ve been exposed, wait a few days because testing right away could be negative,” Karan says. After you wait, “then we’ll be able to detect virus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends self-testing either when symptoms develop or, if you aren’t showing symptoms, five to seven days after exposure. That would give enough time for the body to develop a viral load that can be detected by a home test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the omicron variant, there have been reports that rapid tests are negative during the first day or two of symptoms. So even if you’re showing symptoms, you might want to wait a day or two to take the first test, especially if you have a limited supply of tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890072\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1029px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11890072\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/RS46093_001_KQED_SanFrancisco_COVIDTesting_11302020-qut-e1632780302268.jpg\" alt=\"A gloved hand holds up a small, white envelope with pink lettering: a rapid COVID-19 test.\" width=\"1029\" height=\"686\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A rapid COVID-19 test held by a health care professional at a Unidos En Salud testing site, a collaboration between UCSF and the Latino Task Force, during a post-holiday COVID-19 outreach event on 24th and Mission streets in San Francisco on Nov. 30, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"many\">\u003c/a>How many tests should I take?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>At least two.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why test twice? Home tests are most accurate when you use them serially — at least two over the course of a few days. And if you have a limited supply of home tests, you will want to aim for the time when you are most likely to get an accurate result — say, on Day 5 and Day 7 after exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These tests absolutely have to be used serially, to be perfectly honest. They don’t have the sensitivity to be used one-and-done if they’re negative,” Butler-Wu says. “By repeating it, you’re allowing the virus to potentially grow more to the point, essentially, where now you can detect it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If that test is negative, all that’s telling you is: At this point in time, you don’t have a ton of virus in you,” Karan says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"before\">\u003c/a>Should I get tested before seeing people?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>“If you’re going to visit Grandma or something, yeah, I would probably rapid-test before that,” Karan says. “Or if I’m going somewhere where there’s going be a lot of people. If I’m contagious that day [and don’t know it], I could infect tons of people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A positive test result will tell you to cancel your plans and stay home and isolate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But negative results don’t mean it’s time to rip the mask off in social settings. Rapid tests could be negative before a party and positive during it, just a few hours later — even if you’re vaccinated and boosted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To say that the negative test means being indoors unmasked — I think that needs to get rethought, pronto,” Butler-Wu says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Omicron has changed the game completely,” she says. “We know from Christmas soirees that occurred in European places that those exact scenarios happened: vaccinated people, negative tests and there was still spread.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11900757\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11900757\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS46111_019_KQED_SanFrancisco_COVIDTesting_11302020-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Two people are shown. One is wearing medical scrubs and a face mask, as they perform a COVID-19, the other is a person who ahs taken their mask off to receive the test in their nose.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS46111_019_KQED_SanFrancisco_COVIDTesting_11302020-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS46111_019_KQED_SanFrancisco_COVIDTesting_11302020-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS46111_019_KQED_SanFrancisco_COVIDTesting_11302020-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS46111_019_KQED_SanFrancisco_COVIDTesting_11302020-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS46111_019_KQED_SanFrancisco_COVIDTesting_11302020-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A health care worker tests a patient for COVID-19 at a testing site on 24th and Mission streets in San Francisco on Nov. 30, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"accurate\">\u003c/a>If I test negative, how accurate is that result?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There can be false negatives, especially soon after exposure when not much virus is present in your body, or if the virus is replicating somewhere other than where you were swabbed — for instance, in your throat instead of your nose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, that doesn’t mean you should use an at-home test to swab in other places that aren’t your nose. A recent viral \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@angelapharmd/video/7049615931995147566\">TikTok video encourages viewers to swab their throats instead\u003c/a>, but emergency physician \u003ca href=\"https://emergency.ucsf.edu/people/mary-mercer-md\">Mary Mercer\u003c/a> says that is not necessary. She’s part of the COVID-19 task force with the San Francisco Department of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You need to follow the directions for whichever at-home test you have,” she says. “You do not need to swab your throat in addition to your nose if it’s a nasal test.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you tested negative and feel the result isn’t accurate, it may be a good idea to test again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>According to a pre-omicron study, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7003e3.htm\">the Abbott BinaxNOW antigen test was 92.6% accurate at detecting the virus in symptomatic people\u003c/a> and 78.6% accurate in asymptomatic people, compared to PCR results in cases where people had viable virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is also possible to have a false negative from a PCR test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any test is a snapshot of what’s happening in the part of your body that was sampled at that moment. That’s all it tells you,” Butler-Wu says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PCR tests are more sensitive and can detect lower amounts of the virus in the body, she says. However, if you were just exposed and are in the very early stages of incubation, you probably haven’t reached what doctors call the “limit of detection.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/testing/diagnostic-testing.html\">the CDC recommends that people get tested at least five days after a possible exposure, or when they start noticing symptoms\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"positive\">\u003c/a>What happens if I test positive?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When you test positive, you should isolate yourself for a minimum of five days and wear a mask for five days after that, according to the CDC. If you have rapid tests, you can use them after five days to see whether you’re still positive, which would mean you need to continue isolating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you tested at a clinic, they will report the results to the local public health department for you. But if you test positive on a home test, you’re not required to report that to the department of public health, says Mercer, the emergency physician from San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We do recommend that if you have a positive test, you call your provider, your personal physician or provider to let them know that you’re positive,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re worried that you have a false positive, those are pretty rare on PCR tests and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/12/12/1063483612/at-home-covid-19-tests-have-room-for-improvement\">usually happen because of contaminated samples, research has found\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/letters-health-care-providers/potential-false-positive-results-antigen-tests-rapid-detection-sars-cov-2-letter-clinical-laboratory\">false positive on an antigen test is possible but fairly unlikely\u003c/a> if the test is taken correctly, says Butler-Wu, especially if you develop symptoms and you know you’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19. And a lot of people are being exposed at this current time of great spread to the omicron and delta variants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If “there’s a bunch of COVID and I’m symptomatic, it’s probably a true positive,” Butler-Wu says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"omicron\">\u003c/a>Do the tests detect omicron?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Rapid tests \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/sars-cov-2-viral-mutations-impact-covid-19-tests#omicronvariantimpact\">may not be as accurate for omicron\u003c/a>, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in late December — but they haven’t released data yet on why they are less accurate and to what degree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FDA also has warned that \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/sars-cov-2-viral-mutations-impact-covid-19-tests\">three types of PCR tests may not detect omicron\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of these issues, if you’re testing at home after symptoms or an exposure to someone with COVID-19, the use of two tests spaced a few days apart is critical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post includes reporting from KQED’s Kevin Stark, Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí and Carly Severn.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "'Unapologetic in the Prioritization of Black Women': bell hooks Remembered by Loved Ones",
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"content": "\u003cp>M. Shadee Malaklou had just been hired as the new chair of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.berea.edu/wgs/\">Women’s and Gender Studies department at Berea College\u003c/a> in Kentucky when she was invited to have lunch with bell hooks. When she arrived, Malaklou remembers, hooks said with a nod and a wink, “‘I was against your hire.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather than being taken aback, Malaklou leaned into hooks’s irreverence and witty honesty — a trait of her writing, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was her way,” says Malaklou. hooks had assumed that Malaklou, a woman of Iranian descent from Southern California, wouldn’t like Berea’s lack of an Iranian American community and would leave. But three years later, hooks was writing a glowing commendation for Malaklou’s tenure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11899786\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/Bellhooks.jpeg\"]Malaklou, now the inaugural director of Berea College’s recently opened \u003ca href=\"https://www.berea.edu/bhc/\">bell hooks center\u003c/a>, speaks about her friendship with hooks with gratitude, recognizing she had access to the private and mundane side of her, while others celebrated her public figure and academia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last three years of bell hooks’s life, she and Malaklou became close friends and confidants. Sometimes, she would call Malaklou to share McDonald’s cheeseburgers, even in the middle of class. It’s also well-known that hooks had an endless craving for Juicy Fruit gum: “She would ask me to order it for her in hordes from Amazon,” says Malaklou.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rest of the world probably knows hooks best through her most popular books, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.routledge.com/Feminism-Is-for-Everybody-Passionate-Politics/hooks/p/book/9781138821620\">Feminism Is for Everybody\u003c/a>,” “\u003ca href=\"https://sites.utexas.edu/lsjcs/files/2018/02/Teaching-to-Transcend.pdf\">Teaching to Transgress\u003c/a>” and “\u003ca href=\"https://www.mahoganybooks.com/9780060959470\">All About Love: New Visions\u003c/a>,” which reemerged in the pandemic as a New York Times bestseller despite being published in 2000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11899786/she-was-prophetic-bay-area-remembers-groundbreaking-author-and-cultural-critic-bell-hooks\">hooks’s passing on Dec. 15\u003c/a>, social media has flooded with eulogies and poignant reflections on almost three decades of her work in feminism, teaching and theory. Many noted the accessibility of her language, as well as her willingness to write from life experience as a way to speak on spirituality and family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before she was bell hooks, though, she was Gloria Watkins, a rising scholar teaching at Yale University in the 1980s. At that time, Rachel Chapman, now a tenured professor of anthropology at the University of Washington, had the professor as her undergraduate thesis advisor. Chapman remembers that her classes were highly sought after, and that she led a support group of Black women, called “Sisters of the Yam,” who idolized her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While working with hooks, Chapman recognized that much of her mentor’s work was concerned with the loss of Black life. “She was writing about what it means to be young and Black and angry and seeing clearly the thin line between being mad and madness, between radical action and personal self-destruction,” says Chapman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='large' align='right']Before she was bell hooks, though, she was Gloria Watkins, a rising scholar teaching at Yale University in the 1980s.[/pullquote]What Chapman witnessed at the time was someone working through the pain and the hurt that would later lead to “All About Love.” Chapman would see hooks again in Los Angeles, while she was working toward her doctoral degree at UCLA in 1992. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/04/26/524744989/when-la-erupted-in-anger-a-look-back-at-the-rodney-king-riots\">Los Angeles riots were raging after the police beating of Rodney King\u003c/a>, and hooks was addressing a beleaguered crowd of the college’s student activists. She offered them advice that would stay with Chapman over the years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“‘I don’t do social justice work with anyone who’s not in a movement with me for a lifetime. And that really reduces the number of people who I’m willing to interact with on that level,'” Chapman remembers hooks saying. “That gave me permission to not have to engage every person running their racism at me. I now do whatever gives me strength and move on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>hooks’s work with students and approach to education has also become part of her legacy, says Jody Greene, founder of the \u003ca href=\"https://citl.ucsc.edu/\">Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning\u003c/a> at UC Santa Cruz, where hooks received her doctoral degree. She says the writer’s books about the practice of teaching have been deeply influential to teachers like herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“hooks strongly believed in education as the cultivation of a human being and not just an instrument for creating good employees,” says Greene, who was a student at Yale during hooks’s time there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Professor Rachel Chapman, University of Washington\"]‘She was writing about what it means to be young and Black and angry.’[/pullquote]In her last decade of life, hooks wasn’t growing complacent in her ideas, friends say: She was actively learning and growing, giving talks and having conversations with other academics and public figures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shelby Chestnut, director of policy and programs at the Transgender Law Center, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oMmZIJijgY&t=1081s\">introduced hooks and Laverne Cox at their conversation at the New School\u003c/a> in 2014. Chestnut remembers meeting hooks for the first time, particularly her generosity and tenderness toward strangers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was like, ‘Hold my hand.’ And so I held her hand and then Laverne held her other hand, and we just walked around the [West Village],” says Chestnut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chestnut saw hooks working to understand and include the trans community in her understandings about feminism, even at a time it wasn’t popular. Her foundational works on feminism, including “\u003ca href=\"https://www.routledge.com/Aint-I-a-Woman-Black-Women-and-Feminism/hooks/p/book/9781138821514\">Ain’t I a Woman\u003c/a>,” critiqued white feminism and began farsighted conversations around intersectionality even before \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/03/29/982357959/what-does-intersectionality-mean\">the term was created by Kimberlé Crenshaw\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even her kindness to all, to feminism more broadly, she was really unapologetic in the prioritization of Black women,” says Chestnut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Multiple people shared how hooks profoundly cared for young people and children, too. Linda Strong-Leek, former professor at Berea College and now provost at Haverford College, remembered hooks’s concern that “‘we had never seen a book with a Black boy just sitting and reading.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of her hooks’s books, such as “\u003ca href=\"https://www.lbyr.com/titles/bell-hooks/be-boy-buzz/9781484788400/\">Be Boy Buzz\u003c/a>,” were aimed at increasing literacy for children of color and providing meaningful representation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='Related Coverage' tag='education']hooks gave over 30 years of her life to groundbreaking scholarship, but she also identified as an Appalachian scholar and chose to return to her home state of Kentucky in the last years of her life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her book “\u003ca href=\"https://www.routledge.com/Belonging-A-Culture-of-Place/hooks/p/book/9780415968164\">Belonging: A Culture of Place\u003c/a>,” hooks wasn’t an abstract theorist, but someone grounded in the geography of her rural upbringing in contrast to city life. Her friends say her love for community was both political and personal. Strong-Leek recalls that, first and foremost, hooks was dedicated to the people around her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We would go out in Berea. Most people didn’t know who she was if they weren’t connected to the college or readers [of] feminist theory,” she says. “I want people to remember that she loved regular people.”\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>M. Shadee Malaklou had just been hired as the new chair of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.berea.edu/wgs/\">Women’s and Gender Studies department at Berea College\u003c/a> in Kentucky when she was invited to have lunch with bell hooks. When she arrived, Malaklou remembers, hooks said with a nod and a wink, “‘I was against your hire.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather than being taken aback, Malaklou leaned into hooks’s irreverence and witty honesty — a trait of her writing, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was her way,” says Malaklou. hooks had assumed that Malaklou, a woman of Iranian descent from Southern California, wouldn’t like Berea’s lack of an Iranian American community and would leave. But three years later, hooks was writing a glowing commendation for Malaklou’s tenure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Malaklou, now the inaugural director of Berea College’s recently opened \u003ca href=\"https://www.berea.edu/bhc/\">bell hooks center\u003c/a>, speaks about her friendship with hooks with gratitude, recognizing she had access to the private and mundane side of her, while others celebrated her public figure and academia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last three years of bell hooks’s life, she and Malaklou became close friends and confidants. Sometimes, she would call Malaklou to share McDonald’s cheeseburgers, even in the middle of class. It’s also well-known that hooks had an endless craving for Juicy Fruit gum: “She would ask me to order it for her in hordes from Amazon,” says Malaklou.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rest of the world probably knows hooks best through her most popular books, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.routledge.com/Feminism-Is-for-Everybody-Passionate-Politics/hooks/p/book/9781138821620\">Feminism Is for Everybody\u003c/a>,” “\u003ca href=\"https://sites.utexas.edu/lsjcs/files/2018/02/Teaching-to-Transcend.pdf\">Teaching to Transgress\u003c/a>” and “\u003ca href=\"https://www.mahoganybooks.com/9780060959470\">All About Love: New Visions\u003c/a>,” which reemerged in the pandemic as a New York Times bestseller despite being published in 2000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11899786/she-was-prophetic-bay-area-remembers-groundbreaking-author-and-cultural-critic-bell-hooks\">hooks’s passing on Dec. 15\u003c/a>, social media has flooded with eulogies and poignant reflections on almost three decades of her work in feminism, teaching and theory. Many noted the accessibility of her language, as well as her willingness to write from life experience as a way to speak on spirituality and family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before she was bell hooks, though, she was Gloria Watkins, a rising scholar teaching at Yale University in the 1980s. At that time, Rachel Chapman, now a tenured professor of anthropology at the University of Washington, had the professor as her undergraduate thesis advisor. Chapman remembers that her classes were highly sought after, and that she led a support group of Black women, called “Sisters of the Yam,” who idolized her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While working with hooks, Chapman recognized that much of her mentor’s work was concerned with the loss of Black life. “She was writing about what it means to be young and Black and angry and seeing clearly the thin line between being mad and madness, between radical action and personal self-destruction,” says Chapman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "Before she was bell hooks, though, she was Gloria Watkins, a rising scholar teaching at Yale University in the 1980s.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>What Chapman witnessed at the time was someone working through the pain and the hurt that would later lead to “All About Love.” Chapman would see hooks again in Los Angeles, while she was working toward her doctoral degree at UCLA in 1992. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/04/26/524744989/when-la-erupted-in-anger-a-look-back-at-the-rodney-king-riots\">Los Angeles riots were raging after the police beating of Rodney King\u003c/a>, and hooks was addressing a beleaguered crowd of the college’s student activists. She offered them advice that would stay with Chapman over the years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“‘I don’t do social justice work with anyone who’s not in a movement with me for a lifetime. And that really reduces the number of people who I’m willing to interact with on that level,'” Chapman remembers hooks saying. “That gave me permission to not have to engage every person running their racism at me. I now do whatever gives me strength and move on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>hooks’s work with students and approach to education has also become part of her legacy, says Jody Greene, founder of the \u003ca href=\"https://citl.ucsc.edu/\">Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning\u003c/a> at UC Santa Cruz, where hooks received her doctoral degree. She says the writer’s books about the practice of teaching have been deeply influential to teachers like herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“hooks strongly believed in education as the cultivation of a human being and not just an instrument for creating good employees,” says Greene, who was a student at Yale during hooks’s time there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘She was writing about what it means to be young and Black and angry.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In her last decade of life, hooks wasn’t growing complacent in her ideas, friends say: She was actively learning and growing, giving talks and having conversations with other academics and public figures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shelby Chestnut, director of policy and programs at the Transgender Law Center, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oMmZIJijgY&t=1081s\">introduced hooks and Laverne Cox at their conversation at the New School\u003c/a> in 2014. Chestnut remembers meeting hooks for the first time, particularly her generosity and tenderness toward strangers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was like, ‘Hold my hand.’ And so I held her hand and then Laverne held her other hand, and we just walked around the [West Village],” says Chestnut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chestnut saw hooks working to understand and include the trans community in her understandings about feminism, even at a time it wasn’t popular. Her foundational works on feminism, including “\u003ca href=\"https://www.routledge.com/Aint-I-a-Woman-Black-Women-and-Feminism/hooks/p/book/9781138821514\">Ain’t I a Woman\u003c/a>,” critiqued white feminism and began farsighted conversations around intersectionality even before \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/03/29/982357959/what-does-intersectionality-mean\">the term was created by Kimberlé Crenshaw\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even her kindness to all, to feminism more broadly, she was really unapologetic in the prioritization of Black women,” says Chestnut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Multiple people shared how hooks profoundly cared for young people and children, too. Linda Strong-Leek, former professor at Berea College and now provost at Haverford College, remembered hooks’s concern that “‘we had never seen a book with a Black boy just sitting and reading.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of her hooks’s books, such as “\u003ca href=\"https://www.lbyr.com/titles/bell-hooks/be-boy-buzz/9781484788400/\">Be Boy Buzz\u003c/a>,” were aimed at increasing literacy for children of color and providing meaningful representation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>hooks gave over 30 years of her life to groundbreaking scholarship, but she also identified as an Appalachian scholar and chose to return to her home state of Kentucky in the last years of her life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her book “\u003ca href=\"https://www.routledge.com/Belonging-A-Culture-of-Place/hooks/p/book/9780415968164\">Belonging: A Culture of Place\u003c/a>,” hooks wasn’t an abstract theorist, but someone grounded in the geography of her rural upbringing in contrast to city life. Her friends say her love for community was both political and personal. Strong-Leek recalls that, first and foremost, hooks was dedicated to the people around her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We would go out in Berea. Most people didn’t know who she was if they weren’t connected to the college or readers [of] feminist theory,” she says. “I want people to remember that she loved regular people.”\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "omicron-cases-are-on-the-rise-but-booster-shots-are-the-best-defense-we-have",
"title": "Omicron Cases Are on the Rise. But Booster Shots Are Still the Best Defense We Have",
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"headTitle": "Omicron Cases Are on the Rise. But Booster Shots Are Still the Best Defense We Have | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Several nights ago, my husband texted me questions while traveling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Does my vaccine not work anymore?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Should I get a booster even though it’s been only four months since my second shot?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11896107\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/GettyImages-1234850823-1020x680.jpg\"]“Excellent questions,” I thought. One thing is crystal clear about the highly mutated omicron variant of the coronavirus: It has a huge ability to bypass immune protection and cause breakthrough infections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what you need to know about how well the vaccines are working in the face of the omicron variant and the best timing for getting your booster shot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Don’t have time to read the whole guide? Here’s a quick breakdown. Click on the links below to skip to a specific section:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#still\">\u003cstrong>Does my COVID-19 vaccine not work anymore?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#much\">How much does a booster shot help?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#wait\">\u003cstrong>Do I have to wait six months from my original vaccine to get a booster shot?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#work\">How does a booster work against omicron?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#fast\">\u003cstrong>How fast will the booster work?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#donde\">How long will the protection from the booster last?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"still\">\u003c/a>Does my COVID-19 vaccine not work anymore?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Yes and no.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two shots of a vaccine — whether it’s Pfizer or Moderna — do still offer protection against severe disease, researchers in South Africa have found. In a study with about 78,000 omicron cases, getting two shots of Pfizer cut a person’s risk of hospitalization by about 70% across all age groups. That’s compared with a 90% reduction of risk with the delta variant, but it does indicate that the vaccines are still working really well to keep people out of the hospital. The effectiveness against omicron seems to hold up in older people as well, although it declines a bit, to about 60%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when it comes to stopping an infection, two shots isn’t enough, the researchers found. The vaccine’s effectiveness against an infection with omicron was only about 30%, which means breakthrough infections will be extremely common with this new variant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11900064\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11900064\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-scaled.jpg\" alt='A small glass vial on a table with a label that reads, \"Moderna OCVID-19 Vaccine.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine awaits administration at a vaccination clinic in Los Angeles on December 15, 2021. \u003ccite>(Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"much\">\u003c/a>How much does the booster help?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Probably a lot — against infection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem with only two shots of the vaccine is that most of the antibodies your body generates don’t have the potency to neutralize omicron when it first attacks your upper respiratory tract. That means you could easily get a breakthrough infection. (The good news is that for most people, the immune system does kick in to fight off severe disease once memory cells activate.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laboratory studies have shown that antibodies, after only two shots, are 40 to 50 times less potent against omicron than against previous variants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11900014\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1236892674-1020x601.jpg\"]“We found that only 32% of people who received Moderna, even if it was recently, had detectable neutralization ability against omicron,” says immunologist \u003ca href=\"https://connects.catalyst.harvard.edu/Profiles/display/Person/89685\">Wilfredo Garcia Beltran\u003c/a>, who’s a fellow at the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after the booster shot, that percentage goes up dramatically, he says: “If you boost everyone, the numbers look amazing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the booster shot, the amount of neutralization potency against omicron rose to a level close to what Garcia Beltran observed against the delta variant. “I think this finding is suggestive that we’re inducing really good neutralization against omicron with a booster,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And those laboratory findings fit with what health officials have observed in the U.K.: “Moderate to high vaccine effectiveness of 70 to 75% is seen in the early period after a booster dose,” the U.K. Health Security Agency reported two weeks ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Altogether, these studies show that a third dose gives you the best chance of preventing an omicron infection this winter. For some young and healthy people, catching a mild case of omicron might not be that big of a burden, but a booster still reduces your risk of spreading it to older loved ones or other vulnerable people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We definitely need to give this to everyone if we want to prevent omicron from spreading like wildfire — or at least, curtail its spread,” Garcia Beltran says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11900060\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11900060\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234768450-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A small piece of paper with dates of vaccinations, held by a hand with a pen.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1704\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234768450-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234768450-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234768450-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234768450-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234768450-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234768450-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234768450-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A nurse marks a vaccination card with a booster dose at a vaccine clinic on August 19, 2021 at Tournament House in Pasadena. \u003ccite>(Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"wait\">\u003c/a>I got my primary dose four months ago and was told to wait until six months for a booster. Do I have to wait, or can I get a booster now?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Officially, adults are eligible for a booster two months after the J&J vaccine and six months after your second dose of Pfizer or Moderna. Right now, that’s still the official recommendation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, because two shots provide such little protection against infection with omicron, doctors and scientists are shifting their recommendation a bit about the timing of the booster after the mRNA vaccines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the setting of a new variant — and wanting a higher degree of protection for the holidays, then I do think that clinical judgment could involve boosting a bit earlier,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.bidmc.org/research/research-by-department/medicine/center-for-virology-and-vaccine-research/barouch-laboratory\">Dr. Daniel Barouch\u003c/a>, who runs the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The original six-month recommendation is based on “the ideal spacing between three-dose vaccine regimens,” Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF, writes in an email to NPR. “Zero, one and six months is what we use for so many three-dose vaccines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with omicron about to surge, she says, getting a boost in antibodies earlier might be worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is probably no harm in speeding up to boost antibodies,” she writes, just as long as you wait at least three months from the second shot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is especially true for people who are at high risk for severe disease or live with someone who is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, Germany’s vaccine authority recently recommended that Germans get their boosters after three months in light of omicron.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Barouch cautions against speeding up the booster too much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wouldn’t boost too much earlier,” he says. “For example, I wouldn’t boost a month or two after the initial vaccine or vaccines. But if somebody is in the second half of the six-month time frame, and if they really feel like they would benefit from a higher level of protection, then I don’t see a downside in getting boosted a bit earlier.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11900062\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11900062\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234838497-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A person wears a face mask and glove as they handle the vial and syringe.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1710\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234838497-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234838497-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234838497-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234838497-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234838497-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234838497-2048x1368.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234838497-1920x1283.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A nurse fills a syringe with a Pfize COVID-19 vaccine at a pop up clinic in Los Angeles, August 23, 2021. \u003ccite>(Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"work\">\u003c/a>How does a booster work to improve protection against a new variant like omicron? And why do we have to wait several months to get one?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Improved immunity is not just about having more antibodies; it’s also about having the kind of antibodies that can actually take down omicron. For your body to generate those specific antibodies, it takes time — at least three months after the first two shots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You see, right after your first two shots of the vaccine, your immune system rushes and makes a burst of antibodies. But these antibodies aren’t so great. They especially aren’t good at fighting off new coronavirus variants, says immunologist Ali Ellebedy at the Washington University School of Medicine. “That initial group isn’t very well trained.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11890031\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/RS52115_GettyImages-1344323369-qut.jpg\"]The level of these antibodies starts to go down after about a month, and then your body gets to work to “train” these antibodies, Ellebedy says. Special immune cells, called B cells, go into your lymph nodes and start to improve the potency of the antibodies. Eventually, over time, through a process called B cell maturation, these B cells develop new antibodies that not only can recognize and neutralize the original variant of virus (which it saw in the vaccine) but also future variants, such as omicron.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To protect you from future exposures, you want to have the best, well-equipped ‘soldiers,’ and the way our immune system does this is through this process of refinement in our lymph nodes,” Ellebedy says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This process takes time. It can take months.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you get a booster before this process is finished, the shot will essentially amplify the “untrained” antibodies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So if you wait at least three months, the third dose of the vaccine will amplify the “well-trained” antibodies, which are potent against not just omicron, but also possibly the next variant after that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are studies that do show that the longer the period between vaccinations, the more robust the response to second immunization and that makes sense immunologically,” Ellebedy writes in an email to NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“However, that does not mean that an earlier immunization will not be beneficial or harmful in any way. Actually, in the middle of a pandemic one can argue that a three-month or four-month booster makes more sense,” she adds. “Getting that before being exposed to the real virus is always a plus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11900059\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11900059\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234732715-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A nurse vaccinates a person who is sitting down on a chair, while two other people sit on chairs, looking on.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1556\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234732715-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234732715-800x486.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234732715-1020x620.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234732715-160x97.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234732715-1536x934.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234732715-2048x1245.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234732715-1920x1167.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Just vaccinated people sit and wait for 15 minutes of monitoring at a vaccination clinic in Los Angeles on August 17, 2021. \u003ccite>(Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"fast\">\u003c/a>How fast will the booster work?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The boosters work a bit faster than the original course of the vaccine because your body isn’t starting from scratch, says \u003ca href=\"https://www.southshorehealth.org/find-a-doctor/simone-s-wildes\">Dr. Simone Wildes\u003c/a>, who’s an infectious disease doctor at South Shore Health in Massachusetts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You already have some antibodies,” she says. “So I would anticipate that within a week or so after the booster, you’re going to have pretty significant levels of antibodies, but you’re not going to get to the maximum levels until the 14-day mark.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So if you go get vaccinated today, you will have some antibody protection by New Year’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"long\">\u003c/a>How long will the protection from the booster last?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Nobody knows how long protection from infection will last. One preliminary study suggests it will start to wane about three months after the booster shot, as has been the case with the delta variant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no information about how long protection against severe disease will last after a booster, but given the durability observed with only two shots, it’s likely to be quite durable — much more than protection against infection.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Omicron Cases Are on the Rise. But Booster Shots Are Still the Best Defense We Have | KQED",
"description": "Our guide has answers to questions like: How does a COVID-19 booster shot work against omicron? How fast will the booster work? When should I get a booster shot? How can boosters protect us against coronavirus variants?",
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"headline": "Omicron Cases Are on the Rise. But Booster Shots Are Still the Best Defense We Have",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Several nights ago, my husband texted me questions while traveling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Does my vaccine not work anymore?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Should I get a booster even though it’s been only four months since my second shot?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Excellent questions,” I thought. One thing is crystal clear about the highly mutated omicron variant of the coronavirus: It has a huge ability to bypass immune protection and cause breakthrough infections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what you need to know about how well the vaccines are working in the face of the omicron variant and the best timing for getting your booster shot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Don’t have time to read the whole guide? Here’s a quick breakdown. Click on the links below to skip to a specific section:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#still\">\u003cstrong>Does my COVID-19 vaccine not work anymore?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#much\">How much does a booster shot help?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#wait\">\u003cstrong>Do I have to wait six months from my original vaccine to get a booster shot?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#work\">How does a booster work against omicron?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#fast\">\u003cstrong>How fast will the booster work?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#donde\">How long will the protection from the booster last?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"still\">\u003c/a>Does my COVID-19 vaccine not work anymore?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Yes and no.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two shots of a vaccine — whether it’s Pfizer or Moderna — do still offer protection against severe disease, researchers in South Africa have found. In a study with about 78,000 omicron cases, getting two shots of Pfizer cut a person’s risk of hospitalization by about 70% across all age groups. That’s compared with a 90% reduction of risk with the delta variant, but it does indicate that the vaccines are still working really well to keep people out of the hospital. The effectiveness against omicron seems to hold up in older people as well, although it declines a bit, to about 60%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when it comes to stopping an infection, two shots isn’t enough, the researchers found. The vaccine’s effectiveness against an infection with omicron was only about 30%, which means breakthrough infections will be extremely common with this new variant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11900064\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11900064\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-scaled.jpg\" alt='A small glass vial on a table with a label that reads, \"Moderna OCVID-19 Vaccine.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine awaits administration at a vaccination clinic in Los Angeles on December 15, 2021. \u003ccite>(Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"much\">\u003c/a>How much does the booster help?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Probably a lot — against infection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem with only two shots of the vaccine is that most of the antibodies your body generates don’t have the potency to neutralize omicron when it first attacks your upper respiratory tract. That means you could easily get a breakthrough infection. (The good news is that for most people, the immune system does kick in to fight off severe disease once memory cells activate.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laboratory studies have shown that antibodies, after only two shots, are 40 to 50 times less potent against omicron than against previous variants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We found that only 32% of people who received Moderna, even if it was recently, had detectable neutralization ability against omicron,” says immunologist \u003ca href=\"https://connects.catalyst.harvard.edu/Profiles/display/Person/89685\">Wilfredo Garcia Beltran\u003c/a>, who’s a fellow at the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after the booster shot, that percentage goes up dramatically, he says: “If you boost everyone, the numbers look amazing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the booster shot, the amount of neutralization potency against omicron rose to a level close to what Garcia Beltran observed against the delta variant. “I think this finding is suggestive that we’re inducing really good neutralization against omicron with a booster,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And those laboratory findings fit with what health officials have observed in the U.K.: “Moderate to high vaccine effectiveness of 70 to 75% is seen in the early period after a booster dose,” the U.K. Health Security Agency reported two weeks ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Altogether, these studies show that a third dose gives you the best chance of preventing an omicron infection this winter. For some young and healthy people, catching a mild case of omicron might not be that big of a burden, but a booster still reduces your risk of spreading it to older loved ones or other vulnerable people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We definitely need to give this to everyone if we want to prevent omicron from spreading like wildfire — or at least, curtail its spread,” Garcia Beltran says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11900060\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11900060\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234768450-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A small piece of paper with dates of vaccinations, held by a hand with a pen.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1704\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234768450-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234768450-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234768450-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234768450-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234768450-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234768450-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234768450-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A nurse marks a vaccination card with a booster dose at a vaccine clinic on August 19, 2021 at Tournament House in Pasadena. \u003ccite>(Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"wait\">\u003c/a>I got my primary dose four months ago and was told to wait until six months for a booster. Do I have to wait, or can I get a booster now?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Officially, adults are eligible for a booster two months after the J&J vaccine and six months after your second dose of Pfizer or Moderna. Right now, that’s still the official recommendation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, because two shots provide such little protection against infection with omicron, doctors and scientists are shifting their recommendation a bit about the timing of the booster after the mRNA vaccines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the setting of a new variant — and wanting a higher degree of protection for the holidays, then I do think that clinical judgment could involve boosting a bit earlier,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.bidmc.org/research/research-by-department/medicine/center-for-virology-and-vaccine-research/barouch-laboratory\">Dr. Daniel Barouch\u003c/a>, who runs the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The original six-month recommendation is based on “the ideal spacing between three-dose vaccine regimens,” Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF, writes in an email to NPR. “Zero, one and six months is what we use for so many three-dose vaccines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with omicron about to surge, she says, getting a boost in antibodies earlier might be worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is probably no harm in speeding up to boost antibodies,” she writes, just as long as you wait at least three months from the second shot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is especially true for people who are at high risk for severe disease or live with someone who is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, Germany’s vaccine authority recently recommended that Germans get their boosters after three months in light of omicron.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Barouch cautions against speeding up the booster too much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wouldn’t boost too much earlier,” he says. “For example, I wouldn’t boost a month or two after the initial vaccine or vaccines. But if somebody is in the second half of the six-month time frame, and if they really feel like they would benefit from a higher level of protection, then I don’t see a downside in getting boosted a bit earlier.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11900062\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11900062\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234838497-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A person wears a face mask and glove as they handle the vial and syringe.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1710\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234838497-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234838497-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234838497-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234838497-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234838497-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234838497-2048x1368.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234838497-1920x1283.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A nurse fills a syringe with a Pfize COVID-19 vaccine at a pop up clinic in Los Angeles, August 23, 2021. \u003ccite>(Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"work\">\u003c/a>How does a booster work to improve protection against a new variant like omicron? And why do we have to wait several months to get one?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Improved immunity is not just about having more antibodies; it’s also about having the kind of antibodies that can actually take down omicron. For your body to generate those specific antibodies, it takes time — at least three months after the first two shots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You see, right after your first two shots of the vaccine, your immune system rushes and makes a burst of antibodies. But these antibodies aren’t so great. They especially aren’t good at fighting off new coronavirus variants, says immunologist Ali Ellebedy at the Washington University School of Medicine. “That initial group isn’t very well trained.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The level of these antibodies starts to go down after about a month, and then your body gets to work to “train” these antibodies, Ellebedy says. Special immune cells, called B cells, go into your lymph nodes and start to improve the potency of the antibodies. Eventually, over time, through a process called B cell maturation, these B cells develop new antibodies that not only can recognize and neutralize the original variant of virus (which it saw in the vaccine) but also future variants, such as omicron.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To protect you from future exposures, you want to have the best, well-equipped ‘soldiers,’ and the way our immune system does this is through this process of refinement in our lymph nodes,” Ellebedy says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This process takes time. It can take months.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you get a booster before this process is finished, the shot will essentially amplify the “untrained” antibodies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So if you wait at least three months, the third dose of the vaccine will amplify the “well-trained” antibodies, which are potent against not just omicron, but also possibly the next variant after that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are studies that do show that the longer the period between vaccinations, the more robust the response to second immunization and that makes sense immunologically,” Ellebedy writes in an email to NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“However, that does not mean that an earlier immunization will not be beneficial or harmful in any way. Actually, in the middle of a pandemic one can argue that a three-month or four-month booster makes more sense,” she adds. “Getting that before being exposed to the real virus is always a plus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11900059\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11900059\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234732715-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A nurse vaccinates a person who is sitting down on a chair, while two other people sit on chairs, looking on.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1556\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234732715-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234732715-800x486.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234732715-1020x620.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234732715-160x97.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234732715-1536x934.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234732715-2048x1245.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1234732715-1920x1167.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Just vaccinated people sit and wait for 15 minutes of monitoring at a vaccination clinic in Los Angeles on August 17, 2021. \u003ccite>(Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"fast\">\u003c/a>How fast will the booster work?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The boosters work a bit faster than the original course of the vaccine because your body isn’t starting from scratch, says \u003ca href=\"https://www.southshorehealth.org/find-a-doctor/simone-s-wildes\">Dr. Simone Wildes\u003c/a>, who’s an infectious disease doctor at South Shore Health in Massachusetts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You already have some antibodies,” she says. “So I would anticipate that within a week or so after the booster, you’re going to have pretty significant levels of antibodies, but you’re not going to get to the maximum levels until the 14-day mark.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So if you go get vaccinated today, you will have some antibody protection by New Year’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"long\">\u003c/a>How long will the protection from the booster last?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Nobody knows how long protection from infection will last. One preliminary study suggests it will start to wane about three months after the booster shot, as has been the case with the delta variant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no information about how long protection against severe disease will last after a booster, but given the durability observed with only two shots, it’s likely to be quite durable — much more than protection against infection.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California officials have filed a statewide lawsuit against Walmart Inc. alleging that the company illegally disposed of hazardous waste at landfills across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/Walmart%20Complaint.pdf\">42-page document filed Monday by state prosecutors\u003c/a>, the lawsuit alleges the retail giant illegally dumped nearly 160,000 pounds of hazardous waste, or more than 1 million items, each year in California over the last six years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 12 California district attorneys said Walmart violated California’s environmental laws and regulations by dumping hazardous waste products at landfills that aren’t equipped to handle the materials, including alkaline and lithium batteries, insect killer sprays, aerosol cans, toxic cleaning supplies and LED lightbulbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Rob Bonta, California Attorney General\"]‘Walmart’s own audits found that the company is dumping hazardous waste at local landfills at a rate of more than one million items each year.’[/pullquote]The lawsuit also claims Walmart dumped “confidential customer information” at these landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Walmart’s own audits found that the company is dumping hazardous waste at local landfills at a rate of more than one million items each year. From there, these products may seep into the state’s drinking water as toxic pollutants or into the air as dangerous gases,” Bonta said \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-announces-statewide-lawsuit-against-walmart-illegal\">in a statement\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta said the lawsuit filed against the retail giant should serve as a warning to the state’s “worst offenders.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement to NPR, Walmart said the company will defend itself and said the lawsuit is “unjustified.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have met with the state numerous times and walked them through our industry-leading hazardous waste compliance programs in an effort to avoid litigation. Instead, they filed this unjustified lawsuit,” Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove said. “The state is demanding a level of compliance regarding waste disposal from our stores of common household products and other items that goes beyond what is required by law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest lawsuit filed against Walmart isn’t the company’s first with the state of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='Related Coverage' tag='environment']In 2010, the California Attorney General’s Office reached a $25 million settlement against the retail giant for illegally disposing of hazardous waste. But according to the attorney general’s office, a 2015 inspection found that Walmart continued to dump waste illegally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Walmart is a responsible corporate citizen in California and everywhere we operate. We take our obligation to protect the environment seriously and have industry-leading processes in place to comply with local, state and federal environmental laws,” Hargrove said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2015, California investigators said 58 inspections of trash compactors taken from Walmart stores found dozens of items classified as either hazardous waste, medical waste or customer records with personal information.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The lawsuit also claims Walmart dumped “confidential customer information” at these landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Walmart’s own audits found that the company is dumping hazardous waste at local landfills at a rate of more than one million items each year. From there, these products may seep into the state’s drinking water as toxic pollutants or into the air as dangerous gases,” Bonta said \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-announces-statewide-lawsuit-against-walmart-illegal\">in a statement\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta said the lawsuit filed against the retail giant should serve as a warning to the state’s “worst offenders.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement to NPR, Walmart said the company will defend itself and said the lawsuit is “unjustified.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have met with the state numerous times and walked them through our industry-leading hazardous waste compliance programs in an effort to avoid litigation. Instead, they filed this unjustified lawsuit,” Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove said. “The state is demanding a level of compliance regarding waste disposal from our stores of common household products and other items that goes beyond what is required by law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest lawsuit filed against Walmart isn’t the company’s first with the state of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>With COVID-19 again surging in the U.S. because of the omicron variant, President Biden announced several new steps to address the risks posed by the highly contagious variant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Saying he understands “how tired, worried and frustrated you are,” Biden outlined his administration’s latest approach to deal with the virus that has taken some 800,000 lives in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most notably, the government plans to buy a half-billion at-home COVID test kits and mail them to people who want them, with deliveries beginning in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11898455\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52826_GettyImages-1227768883-qut.jpg\"]It’s a major step to tackling problems Americans have faced in easily accessing free at-home COVID tests throughout the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden sought to assure Americans who are vaccinated and boosted that they have a high degree of protection against severe illness. But he also made it clear that it will not be unusual for vaccinated people to get COVID-19, because of the new variant and that they will likely experience no symptoms or mild symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They should feel comfortable celebrating Christmas and the holidays as they planned,” the administration official said, noting people should take regular precautions like wearing masks during travel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden will not announce new restrictions on schools or businesses, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not a speech about locking the country down. This is a speech outlining and being direct and clear with the American people about the benefits of being vaccinated, the steps we’re going to take to increase access and to increase testing, and the risks posed to unvaccinated individuals,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Access to free tests, a major new step\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On Monday, the omicron variant became the most dominant version of the coronavirus in the U.S. and cases continued to rise as many Americans prepared for Christmas holidays later this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with so many new cases, Americans faced problems in accessing affordable COVID-19 tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Yorkers hit the streets over the weekend trying to get tested but encountered long lines in the cold. The wait at a city-run testing and vaccination center in Times Square on Saturday afternoon was reportedly about three hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Dr. Robert M. Wachter, UCSF\"]‘[Testing] just needs to be freely available in the same way that vaccines have been.’[/pullquote]The U.S. government wants to change that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal government will announce new federal testing sites across the country, including one in New York City that will open before Christmas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, the government will also start a website where people can order at-home tests to be delivered for free. This will augment plans announced earlier this month to require private insurance companies to reimburse people for the tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden will also continue using the Defense Production Act and other powers to make sure the U.S. is producing as many tests as quickly as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are all steps the administration should have made a while ago, said Dr. Robert M. Wachter, a professor and chairman of the Department of Medicine at UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Testing will only become more important as the U.S. continues to power through this surge, Wachter told NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just needs to be freely available in the same way that vaccines have been,” he said of COVID-19 tests. “So that part is great. But because they are just starting now, it’s going to be a little bit late.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wachter said it will take some time for the government to gear up production and mail them out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Omicron is going to peak by mid-January, so it may miss a fair amount of this surge,” he said. “But better late than never. We have no idea how long this surge will last. This surge could go on for a couple of months.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Carlos del Rio, the executive associate dean of the Emory School of Medicine & Grady Health System, calls the move “a step in the right direction,” but warns that it falls short.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also insists that the U.S. needs a nationwide mask mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like other physicians contacted by NPR, Dr. Leana Wen doesn’t think 500 million tests will be enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Half a billion, though impressive-sounding, does not come even close to what’s needed,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wen, an emergency physician and professor of health policy and management at George Washington University, says the Biden administration needs to provide enough tests “for all American families to be able to test twice a week, every week.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It needs to become the norm to test before going to school and work, and before families and friends have dinner together,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>More aid to boost vaccines and help hospitals\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As part of this multipronged effort, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is deploying planning officials to assess needs across the country and preposition supplies like masks, gloves and ventilators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The president announced that FEMA is standing up new pop-up vaccination clinics across the country. There are plans so far for a new mobile unit in Washington, D.C., and four new mobile units across New Mexico. FEMA will help set up additional sites in areas of high demand over the coming weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden will also announce plans to beef up support for hospitals seeing high numbers of unvaccinated people who get sick from COVID.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The government will send ambulances and EMS workers to hot spots to help move people to places where there are open beds. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will mobilize 1,000 doctors, nurses, medics and other military medical personnel to deploy to hospitals in January and February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Wachter, this number of medical personnel feels like a “drop in the bucket.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='Related Coverage' tag='coronavirus']“Starting with that number will be fine, but if it turns out to be woefully inaccurate, then everyone will be scrambling,” he said. “It’s going to be a bit of a free-for-all to figure out how we staff hospitals. If this hits hard, I doubt this will suffice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S.’s hard-hit areas will get a proper sense of what is needed in terms of additional medical personnel in a week or two, Wachter said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It may be that number will need to be 5,000 to 10,000,” he said. “The question is whether the number will be there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>NPR health correspondent Rob Stein contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The U.S. government wants to change that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal government will announce new federal testing sites across the country, including one in New York City that will open before Christmas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, the government will also start a website where people can order at-home tests to be delivered for free. This will augment plans announced earlier this month to require private insurance companies to reimburse people for the tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden will also continue using the Defense Production Act and other powers to make sure the U.S. is producing as many tests as quickly as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are all steps the administration should have made a while ago, said Dr. Robert M. Wachter, a professor and chairman of the Department of Medicine at UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Testing will only become more important as the U.S. continues to power through this surge, Wachter told NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just needs to be freely available in the same way that vaccines have been,” he said of COVID-19 tests. “So that part is great. But because they are just starting now, it’s going to be a little bit late.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wachter said it will take some time for the government to gear up production and mail them out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Omicron is going to peak by mid-January, so it may miss a fair amount of this surge,” he said. “But better late than never. We have no idea how long this surge will last. This surge could go on for a couple of months.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Carlos del Rio, the executive associate dean of the Emory School of Medicine & Grady Health System, calls the move “a step in the right direction,” but warns that it falls short.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also insists that the U.S. needs a nationwide mask mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like other physicians contacted by NPR, Dr. Leana Wen doesn’t think 500 million tests will be enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Half a billion, though impressive-sounding, does not come even close to what’s needed,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wen, an emergency physician and professor of health policy and management at George Washington University, says the Biden administration needs to provide enough tests “for all American families to be able to test twice a week, every week.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It needs to become the norm to test before going to school and work, and before families and friends have dinner together,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>More aid to boost vaccines and help hospitals\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As part of this multipronged effort, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is deploying planning officials to assess needs across the country and preposition supplies like masks, gloves and ventilators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The president announced that FEMA is standing up new pop-up vaccination clinics across the country. There are plans so far for a new mobile unit in Washington, D.C., and four new mobile units across New Mexico. FEMA will help set up additional sites in areas of high demand over the coming weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden will also announce plans to beef up support for hospitals seeing high numbers of unvaccinated people who get sick from COVID.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The government will send ambulances and EMS workers to hot spots to help move people to places where there are open beds. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will mobilize 1,000 doctors, nurses, medics and other military medical personnel to deploy to hospitals in January and February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Wachter, this number of medical personnel feels like a “drop in the bucket.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Starting with that number will be fine, but if it turns out to be woefully inaccurate, then everyone will be scrambling,” he said. “It’s going to be a bit of a free-for-all to figure out how we staff hospitals. If this hits hard, I doubt this will suffice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S.’s hard-hit areas will get a proper sense of what is needed in terms of additional medical personnel in a week or two, Wachter said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It may be that number will need to be 5,000 to 10,000,” he said. “The question is whether the number will be there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>NPR health correspondent Rob Stein contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Food and Drug Administration has announced it will relax controversial restrictions on a heavily regulated medication used to induce abortions — easing access to the drug at a time when abortion rights are being increasingly restricted nationwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The drug, mifepristone, is approved for use in combination with another medication, misoprostol, to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/fact-sheet/the-availability-and-use-of-medication-abortion/\">terminate pregnancies of up to 10 weeks\u003c/a> and is sometimes used to treat patients experiencing miscarriages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the coronavirus pandemic, doctors could prescribe the pills only to patients who were able to pick them up in person. But in response to COVID-19, the Biden administration suspended that requirement, allowing them to be mailed to patients instead. The decision by the FDA on Thursday makes that change permanent.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Advocates said restrictions on the abortion pill were ‘outdated’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Last year, reproductive rights groups successfully sued to suspend the in-person dispensing rule, arguing it exposed patients to unnecessary risk from COVID-19. The Trump administration fought that decision at the Supreme Court, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/us/supreme-court-abortion-pill.html\">which allowed the rule to be reinstated\u003c/a>. Then, \u003ca href=\"https://www.acog.org/news/news-releases/2021/04/acog-applauds-fda-action-on-mifepristone-access-during-covid-19-pandemic\">the Biden administration stepped in this April\u003c/a> to once again allow patients to receive the abortion pills by mail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doctors like Nisha Verma said this mail option has been particularly helpful for residents of rural areas far from the nearest clinic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11896908\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/RS52678_001_Chico_WomensHealthSpecialists_11182021-qut-1020x680.jpg\"]“I think that makes it much more accessible for people where they don’t actually have to physically come into a clinic, they don’t have to expose themselves to COVID, they can do this all from the comfort of their home,” said Verma, an OB-GYN and abortion provider based in Washington, D.C.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, state law protects the right to obtain an abortion before viability is guaranteed. That assurance, however, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11896908/for-many-rural-and-lower-income-californians-abortion-services-remain-hard-to-access\">doesn’t always mean it’s easy to terminate a pregnancy, especially in the more rural regions of the state\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a 2017 study, the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights advocacy and policy organization, found that some 40% of mostly rural counties in California had no clinics that provided abortions. That means even in a state with some of the nation’s most progressive abortion laws, many must travel over 100 miles to find a provider.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A coalition of medical and reproductive rights groups from across the country asked the FDA to permanently remove the in-person rule, as well as other restrictions, for mifepristone. As a result of litigation spearheaded by groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, the FDA agreed to review its regulations and report back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Julia Kaye, an ACLU attorney, said years of data demonstrate that mifepristone is safe if used appropriately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11896560\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/RS52685_010_Chico_WomensHealthSpecialists_11182021-qut-1020x680.jpg\"]“At this moment, with Roe v. Wade hanging by a thread, it is especially urgent that the federal government do everything in its power to follow the science and expand access to this safe, effective medication,” Kaye said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As more states pass restrictions, Kaye said, lifting “outdated” restrictions and \u003ca href=\"https://www.contraceptionjournal.org/article/S0010-7824(21)00148-7/fulltext\">making it easier for doctors to prescribe the pill could make abortion available for more people\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Major \u003ca href=\"https://www.acog.org/clinical-information/policy-and-position-statements/position-statements/2018/improving-access-to-mifepristone-for-reproductive-health-indications\">medical groups including the American Medical Association argue\u003c/a> that since mifepristone was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000, it has built up a strong safety record. Nonetheless, mifepristone is subject to layers of restrictions beyond those applied to typical prescription drugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Abortion opponents have long fought easier access\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Conservative activists have long fought efforts to relax the rules for mifepristone, taking note of the increasing popularity of abortion pills, which many patients choose out of a desire to avoid surgery or \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/transcripts/759761114\">to terminate pregnancies more privately at home\u003c/a>. Today, \u003ca href=\"https://www.guttmacher.org/evidence-you-can-use/medication-abortion\">about 40% of patients seeking abortions use pills\u003c/a> rather than having a surgical procedure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Melanie Israel, a policy analyst with the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation, said she \u003ca href=\"https://www.heritage.org/life/report/chemical-abortion-review\">worries that less oversight would put patients at risk\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a reason that these safety protocols have been in place, and the abortion industry is really trying to seize this moment to remove those important safety restrictions and make abortion pills more widely available and more common,” Israel said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Doctors are allowed to prescribe the abortion pill in Canada\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>But a new study published last week in The New England Journal of Medicine, which reviewed data from more than 84,000 abortions, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa2109779\">found no increase in complications after Canada made mifepristone available by a doctor’s prescription in 2017\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Verma, who is also a fellow with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.acog.org/clinical-information/policy-and-position-statements/position-statements/2018/improving-access-to-mifepristone-for-reproductive-health-indications\">American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which has lobbied to remove the FDA restrictions\u003c/a>, said doctors prescribing the pills through telemedicine \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/transcripts/863512837\">ask questions designed to rule out risk factors, including ectopic pregnancies\u003c/a>. She said the pandemic has added to years of research demonstrating mifepristone’s safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='Related Coverage' tag='public-health']“We’ve really seen that this is completely safe and that these FDA regulations are based on politics — they’re not based on science or evidence,” she said. “Medications with similar risk, similar safety profiles, are not regulated the same way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Verma points to the use of the same drug, mifepristone, to treat \u003ca href=\"https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/endocrine-diseases/cushings-syndrome\">Cushing’s syndrome\u003c/a> — \u003ca href=\"https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2012/202107s000lbl.pdf\">prescribed in a larger dose than is typically used to induce an abortion\u003c/a>. That use of the medication is not subject to the same restrictions that constrain abortion patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with the FDA decision, the battle over abortion pills likely will continue in state legislatures, where some lawmakers have passed their own restrictions. This month, \u003ca href=\"https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/872/billtext/html/SB00004F.htm\">a new law took effect in Texas that makes sending abortion pills through the mail a felony\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post includes reporting from KQED’s Katie Orr.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Food and Drug Administration has announced it will relax controversial restrictions on a heavily regulated medication used to induce abortions — easing access to the drug at a time when abortion rights are being increasingly restricted nationwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The drug, mifepristone, is approved for use in combination with another medication, misoprostol, to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/fact-sheet/the-availability-and-use-of-medication-abortion/\">terminate pregnancies of up to 10 weeks\u003c/a> and is sometimes used to treat patients experiencing miscarriages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the coronavirus pandemic, doctors could prescribe the pills only to patients who were able to pick them up in person. But in response to COVID-19, the Biden administration suspended that requirement, allowing them to be mailed to patients instead. The decision by the FDA on Thursday makes that change permanent.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Advocates said restrictions on the abortion pill were ‘outdated’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Last year, reproductive rights groups successfully sued to suspend the in-person dispensing rule, arguing it exposed patients to unnecessary risk from COVID-19. The Trump administration fought that decision at the Supreme Court, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/us/supreme-court-abortion-pill.html\">which allowed the rule to be reinstated\u003c/a>. Then, \u003ca href=\"https://www.acog.org/news/news-releases/2021/04/acog-applauds-fda-action-on-mifepristone-access-during-covid-19-pandemic\">the Biden administration stepped in this April\u003c/a> to once again allow patients to receive the abortion pills by mail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doctors like Nisha Verma said this mail option has been particularly helpful for residents of rural areas far from the nearest clinic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I think that makes it much more accessible for people where they don’t actually have to physically come into a clinic, they don’t have to expose themselves to COVID, they can do this all from the comfort of their home,” said Verma, an OB-GYN and abortion provider based in Washington, D.C.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, state law protects the right to obtain an abortion before viability is guaranteed. That assurance, however, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11896908/for-many-rural-and-lower-income-californians-abortion-services-remain-hard-to-access\">doesn’t always mean it’s easy to terminate a pregnancy, especially in the more rural regions of the state\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a 2017 study, the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights advocacy and policy organization, found that some 40% of mostly rural counties in California had no clinics that provided abortions. That means even in a state with some of the nation’s most progressive abortion laws, many must travel over 100 miles to find a provider.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A coalition of medical and reproductive rights groups from across the country asked the FDA to permanently remove the in-person rule, as well as other restrictions, for mifepristone. As a result of litigation spearheaded by groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, the FDA agreed to review its regulations and report back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Julia Kaye, an ACLU attorney, said years of data demonstrate that mifepristone is safe if used appropriately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“At this moment, with Roe v. Wade hanging by a thread, it is especially urgent that the federal government do everything in its power to follow the science and expand access to this safe, effective medication,” Kaye said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As more states pass restrictions, Kaye said, lifting “outdated” restrictions and \u003ca href=\"https://www.contraceptionjournal.org/article/S0010-7824(21)00148-7/fulltext\">making it easier for doctors to prescribe the pill could make abortion available for more people\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Major \u003ca href=\"https://www.acog.org/clinical-information/policy-and-position-statements/position-statements/2018/improving-access-to-mifepristone-for-reproductive-health-indications\">medical groups including the American Medical Association argue\u003c/a> that since mifepristone was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000, it has built up a strong safety record. Nonetheless, mifepristone is subject to layers of restrictions beyond those applied to typical prescription drugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Abortion opponents have long fought easier access\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Conservative activists have long fought efforts to relax the rules for mifepristone, taking note of the increasing popularity of abortion pills, which many patients choose out of a desire to avoid surgery or \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/transcripts/759761114\">to terminate pregnancies more privately at home\u003c/a>. Today, \u003ca href=\"https://www.guttmacher.org/evidence-you-can-use/medication-abortion\">about 40% of patients seeking abortions use pills\u003c/a> rather than having a surgical procedure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Melanie Israel, a policy analyst with the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation, said she \u003ca href=\"https://www.heritage.org/life/report/chemical-abortion-review\">worries that less oversight would put patients at risk\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a reason that these safety protocols have been in place, and the abortion industry is really trying to seize this moment to remove those important safety restrictions and make abortion pills more widely available and more common,” Israel said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Doctors are allowed to prescribe the abortion pill in Canada\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>But a new study published last week in The New England Journal of Medicine, which reviewed data from more than 84,000 abortions, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa2109779\">found no increase in complications after Canada made mifepristone available by a doctor’s prescription in 2017\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Verma, who is also a fellow with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.acog.org/clinical-information/policy-and-position-statements/position-statements/2018/improving-access-to-mifepristone-for-reproductive-health-indications\">American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which has lobbied to remove the FDA restrictions\u003c/a>, said doctors prescribing the pills through telemedicine \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/transcripts/863512837\">ask questions designed to rule out risk factors, including ectopic pregnancies\u003c/a>. She said the pandemic has added to years of research demonstrating mifepristone’s safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We’ve really seen that this is completely safe and that these FDA regulations are based on politics — they’re not based on science or evidence,” she said. “Medications with similar risk, similar safety profiles, are not regulated the same way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Verma points to the use of the same drug, mifepristone, to treat \u003ca href=\"https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/endocrine-diseases/cushings-syndrome\">Cushing’s syndrome\u003c/a> — \u003ca href=\"https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2012/202107s000lbl.pdf\">prescribed in a larger dose than is typically used to induce an abortion\u003c/a>. That use of the medication is not subject to the same restrictions that constrain abortion patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with the FDA decision, the battle over abortion pills likely will continue in state legislatures, where some lawmakers have passed their own restrictions. This month, \u003ca href=\"https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/872/billtext/html/SB00004F.htm\">a new law took effect in Texas that makes sending abortion pills through the mail a felony\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post includes reporting from KQED’s Katie Orr.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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