Reopening America

Since the start of the pandemic, the testing infrastructure in the U.S. has been marred by stumbles. Now, as President Biden is putting more emphasis on rapid tests to help fight Covid, these tests are often out of stock and still too expensive for many. Even as the new rules say insurers would pay for these tests, it could be difficult to get the reimbursements. Lena Sun, health reporter at The Washington Post, joins us for more on rapid Covid tests.

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According to Gallup’s annual Health and Healthcare survey, among all U.S. adults, confidence in advice from doctors is down. More reported losing trust in their doctors over the past year and Republicans in particular had a 13% drop from a decade ago while Democrats’ trust increased. Jeffrey Jones, senior editor at Gallup joins us for what to know as this data is consistent with changing attitudes of trust in science.

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We’ll take a look at one woman’s path through rehab as she tries to fight the effects of long Covid. Samantha Lewis got Covid in October 2020 and has been dealing with issues such as brain fog, fatigue, balance issues and more since then. She had to reduce time at work and place reminders in her house of even the simplest tasks such as brushing her teeth to get by. She was finally on the path to recovery after seeing doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Neuro Covid-19 clinic in Chicago who recommended cognitive rehab. Pam Belluck, health and science writer at the NY Times, joins us for how Samantha is doing a year later.

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The medical field is still experiencing a shortage of nurses and as Covid persists, some are leaving staff jobs to become travel nurses and in some cases tripling their salaries. As shortages occur in hospitals, the demand is rising for travel nurses and it can be very lucrative for those that can be flexible enough to move around for weeks and months at a time. Lenny Bernstein, health and medicine reporter at The Washington Post, joins us for how travel nursing is taking off even more.

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Love them or hate them the holiday office party is back. This year employees could be in store for a few iterations. The virtual parties are back, but with lessons learned. They won’t run as long and could include a box of food or crafts. The in-person party also makes its return, but much in much smaller groups. Rani Molla, senior data reporter for Recode at Vox, joins us for what to expect.

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The White House has detailed its new strategy to fight coronavirus and keep Omicron at bay. One of the big changes is to tighten up the testing timelines for international travelers coming to the U.S. People will now have to test within a day of departure regardless of vaccination status and continues to wear masks on planes through mid-March. Sabrina Siddiqui, White House reporter at the WSJ, join us for what else is in the plan, testing reimbursements and booster shots.

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There is still much we don’t know about Omicron, the new Covid variant spreading through the world. We don’t know if it is more transmissible or most importantly, if it causes more severe illness, preliminary observations show that it could cause milder infections. If so, that could be good as we get on our way to the virus being endemic. Andrew Joseph, reporter at STAT News, joins us for the bottom line, it will take weeks and more data before we know.

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Some hospitals have been preparing to lose staff over vaccine mandates. Up to 30% of hospital workers aren’t vaccinated and could face termination. In some areas, a reduction of staff could cause disruptions to services. We are also learning that a federal district court in Missouri just issued an injunction temporarily blocking the mandate in 10 states. Julie Wernau, health and medicine reporter at the WSJ, joins us for more.

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The snowball effect in the supply chain is raising prices and making it harder to get some of the items you want. The biggest challenge that beer and liquor makers are facing is obtaining glass bottles. America loves their chicken tenders, and prices have jumped because of delays at meat processing plants and in Tyson’s case a bad rooster. Medical equipment, toys, video game consoles, and even your favorite athleisure wear are all facing setbacks. Phil McCausland, reporter at NBC News, joins us for a look at some specific items hurt by back backlogs and rising prices.

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