The Columbian

Health Wire

FILE - President Joe Biden speaks about COVID-19 vaccinations after touring a Clayco Corporation construction site for a Microsoft data center in Elk Grove Village, Ill., Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021. The fate of Biden's vaccine mandate for larger private employers may come down to a lottery that determines which federal circuit court will consider the matter. Conservative groups have filed challenges to the rule in right-leaning courts, while unions that argue the rule doesn't go far enough have done so in left-leaning courts. The multiple cases are expected to be consolidated, and it will be up to a random drawing - expected on Tuesday, Nov.

Ping-pong ball bounce could determine vaccine mandate’s fate

November 16, 2021, 12:50pm Business

The fate of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private employers could come down to the bounce of a ping-pong ball. Read story

Pfizer agrees to let other companies make its COVID-19 pill

November 16, 2021, 7:46am Business

Drugmaker Pfizer Inc. has signed a deal with a U.N.-backed group to allow other manufacturers to make its experimental COVID-19 pill, a move that could make the treatment available to more than half of the world’s population. Read story

How to fix Washington’s mental and behavioral health care system? 4 experts weigh in

November 14, 2021, 10:31am Health

Even before the pandemic, the system for responding to mental illness and substance use disorders in Washington was stretched. Read story

When COVID-19 pandemic hit opioid treatment changed, but not to patients’ detriment

November 14, 2021, 10:30am Health

If you want to begin treatment in Eastern Washington for opioid addiction using methadone, the oldest and most proven medication for such treatment, your options are limited. Read story

Federal officials say complaints are rising from seniors tricked into buying private Medicare policies.

Medicare’s open enrollment is open season for scammers

November 14, 2021, 6:20am Health

Finding the best private Medicare drug or medical insurance plan among dozens of choices is tough enough without throwing misleading sales tactics into the mix. Read story

‘Drinking through a lead straw’: $15 billion going toward fixing dangerous water pipes

November 14, 2021, 6:06am Health

No one knows exactly how many lead pipes deliver water to homes, schools and businesses throughout America — or even where they all are. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates at least 6 million lead service lines exist. Environmental groups say it’s probably many more. Read story

Denver, along Colorado’s Front Range, is among booming cities in the West seeing an increase in ozone.

Western boom cities see spike in harmful ozone

November 14, 2021, 6:05am Health

The reduction of harmful ground-level ozone across most of the U.S. over the past several decades has been an air pollution success story. But in some parts of the country, especially in the heavily populated mountain valleys of the West, the odorless, colorless gas has remained stubbornly difficult to reduce… Read story

Helena Apothaker holds a photograph of her and her mother, Catherine, in West Hollywood. Apothaker is suing Silverado Senior Living after her mom died of COVID-19 at a care facility near Los Angeles' Fairfax District.

Grieving relatives sue facilities over COVID deaths. Nursing homes say they’re immune

November 14, 2021, 6:05am Health

Helena Apothaker was raw with grief for her mother, who had died of COVID-19 as the virus swept through a care facility in Beverly Grove, when she heard the news that infuriated her: The facility had admitted a new resident amid the pandemic. Read story

In Dallas County, the age-adjusted death rate from heart disease was 32% higher for Blacks compared with whites, according to a 2019 report on community health.

A Black doctor at University of Texas Southwestern speaks out on health care’s racial bias

November 14, 2021, 6:00am Business

Different people get different health care, and that can vary by race, gender and more. And it can make a big difference in outcomes. Read story

This photo shows Frederick Brushaber, left, his husband Mark Grice and their baby Freddie in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Oct. 15, 2021. The trio will spend Thanksgiving with family in Knoxville, Tenn.

Are you vaxxed? Some families face fraught divide over jabs

November 14, 2021, 5:59am Business

Thanksgiving is Jonatan Mitchell’s favorite holiday, usually spent with his wife co-hosting up to 20 loved ones. He’d been looking forward to the gathering this year after calling it off in 2020 due to the pandemic, but one of the most pressing issues of the times got in the way:… Read story