Urgent Care News

It looks like millions of cases were missing from the number of U.S. COVID-19 infections reported through September 2020, according to data just published in JAMA Network Open. The problem seems to have been a lack of understanding of how prevalent the virus could be in asymptomatic patients. Blood samples from 61,910 adults who were “well” at the time they applied for life insurance showed a 6.6% positivity rate. Extrapolating that rate to the entire …

Perhaps counterintuitively, there have been widespread reports of healthcare workers refusing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, putting themselves, those around them, and your business at risk. Their choice is likely founded on the same baseless fears that keep too many members of the public away—mainly, that the speed at which the vaccines were studied and approved means they’re unproven or could be dangerous. Incidence of serious side effects has not proven to be any higher …

Fluctuating shifts, a fast-paced work environment, and generally high stress brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic can conspire to make sleepless nights an all-too-common occurrence for urgent care professionals. There could be much higher consequences than next-day sluggishness and bags under your eyes, though. New research just published by BMJ Nutrition, Prevention, and Health reveals that clinicians who are frequently exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and who experience difficulty sleeping at night or poor sleep continuity, or …

Patients may rightly feel a sense of relief upon “getting over” a virus that has killed more than half a million Americans. That may dissipate as weeks—and months—go on with persistent symptoms that inhibit quality of life and raise the specter of ongoing illness, however. And new data published by JAMA Network now indicate that this problem may be much more widespread than previously understood. Fully three quarters of patients continue to have symptoms 6 …

The excitement and optimism that erupt with every approval of a COVID-19 vaccine are tempered by the problematic system of distributing and administering those vaccines. The public is further frustrated and fearful that there is no “cure” for the virus. A new method of inhibiting symptoms and preventing spread within members of the same household may be on the horizon, however, according to a report presented recently at the (virtual) annual meeting of the Conference …

Every iteration of COVID-19 tests has been celebrated as a significant step forward in curbing the pandemic and helping the country inch back closer to “normal” life. What if one variety of test proved to be a hindrance to that effort, though? The College of American Pathologists is the latest group to raise concerns that COVID-19 tests administered at home by patients or family members may not be as accurate as those conducted in the …