The Columbian

Health Wire

Deborah Sampson, left, a nurse at a University of Washington Medical Center clinic in Seattle, gives a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine shot to a 20-month-old child, June 21, 2022, in Seattle. Pfizer is asking U.S. regulators to authorize its updated COVID-19 vaccine for children under age 5. The youngest tots already are supposed to get three extra-small doses of the original vaccine as their primary series. Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said Monday, Dec. 5, 2022 that if the Food and Drug Administration agrees, the updated vaccine would be used for the third shot. The FDA already has cleared COVID-19 vaccines tweaked to better target omicron as boosters for everyone 5 and older. (AP Photo/Ted S.

Pfizer asks FDA to clear updated COVID shot for kids under 5

December 5, 2022, 1:00pm Business

Pfizer is asking U.S. regulators to authorize its updated COVID-19 vaccine for children under age 5 — not as a booster but part of their initial shots. Read story

How optimism can close the Medicaid coverage gap

December 5, 2022, 5:43am Business

More than 2 million low-income people — half of them in Florida and Texas — are uninsured because they are stuck in a coverage gap: They earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but because of a quirk of the Affordable Care Act, they earn too little to qualify for… Read story

For a Kent teen, getting mental health help was ‘like a storm clearing up’

December 5, 2022, 5:21am Health

McKenna Riddle was changing — even her friends were starting to notice. The Kent teenager was afraid, easily irritated, and would find herself either on guard or struggling to remember things, almost “shutting down,” she said. Read story

Trickle of COVID relief funds helps fill gaps in rural kids’ mental health services

December 4, 2022, 6:06am Health

The Mary Hill Youth and Family Center’s building has long been at a crossroads overlooking this rural Appalachian city, but its purpose has evolved. Read story

When malpractice occurs at community health centers, taxpayers pay

December 4, 2022, 6:05am Health

Silvia Garcia’s 14-year-old son was left permanently disabled and in a wheelchair after a community health center doctor in New Mexico failed to diagnose his appendicitis despite his complaint of severe stomach pain. The teenager’s appendix ruptured before he could get to a hospital, and complications led to septic shock. Read story

Jacqueline Lewis, son Shaun, and his 7-year-old daughter lived together in a family home in Columbus, Ohio, until this fall, when Shaun died of an overdose.

Schools, sheriffs and syringes: State plans vary for spending $26 billion in opioid settlement funds

December 4, 2022, 6:02am Health

With more than 200 Americans still dying of drug overdoses each day, states are beginning the high-stakes task of deciding how to spend billions of dollars in settlement funds from opioid manufacturers and distributors. Their decisions will have real-world implications for families and communities across the country that have borne… Read story

The more pandemic precautions fall away, the more COVID risk is concentrated on this one group

December 4, 2022, 5:54am Health

For Giancarlo Santos, holiday parties are typically a free-for-all of revelry, with friends and family spilling into every corner of the house, and Christmas decorations twinkling everywhere. Read story