As if the coronavirus on its own wasn’t enough to worry about, on Jan. 1 we reported that an incident involving the deliberate tampering with of vials of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses led to an arrest in the Milwaukee area on Dec. 31. The incident involved a pharmacist working for Advocate Aurora Health, at that health system’s Grafton Hospital, in a suburb of Milwaukee.
As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Alison Dirr and Rory Linnane reported on afternoon of Dec. 31, “A pharmacist accused of tampering with over 500 doses of COVID-19 vaccine at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton was arrested Thursday. Grafton police said the pharmacist, a Grafton resident, removed 57 vials from a refrigerator and left them out overnight last week. They said the man knew this would render the vaccines "useless" and make people who received them believe they were vaccinated when they were not. Each vial contained about 10 doses of vaccine. Aurora discarded more than 500 doses and Thursday said it has determined 57 people were given less-effective or ineffective vaccines.”
On Feb. 2, we reported that the country’s health problems didn’t disappear during the COVID-19 pandemic, but for thousands of medical practices nationwide, the patients needing treatment did, according to a report from Humana and the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA).
The report, “No Time to Waste: Deferred Care and Pandemic Recovery,” is based on MGMA polling throughout the pandemic, and “paints a startling picture of the disruption caused by COVID-19,” according to researchers. For example, the research pointed to 97 percent of practices reporting a drop in patient volumes by early April, with safety (87 percent) ranking as the top reason patients cited for deferring care during the pandemic, followed by job/insurance loss (9 percent) and other issues (4 percent), such as elective surgery bans, visitor restrictions in clinics or noncompliance with mask/safety requirements.
Then on March 9, we reported that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) announced a new effort that will entail investing $250 million to encourage COVID-19 safety and vaccination among underserved populations. The funding is offered as health literacy grants to localities, who will partner with community-based organizations to reach racial and ethnic minority, rural, and other vulnerable populations.
Later that month on March 19, we reported that retail chain Walmart announced it will make vaccination records available digitally for those individuals who received shots at Walmart or Sam’s Club. Walmart uses the open, interoperable SMART Health Cards standard being developed under the Vaccination Credential Initiative, co-chaired by The Commons Project Foundation (TCP). Earlier this year, the initiative was formed, with the idea to empower individuals with digital access to their vaccination records based on open, interoperable standards.
One of perhaps the most troubling things associated with the COVID-19 pandemic is the conspiracy theories that circulate widely on social media. On April 26, we reported that a machine-learning program was created to accurately identify COVID-19-related conspiracy theories on social media and models how they evolved over time, according to researchers from the New Mexico-based Los Alamos National Laboratory and University of New Mexico. The researchers believe they have developed a tool that could someday help public health officials combat misinformation online.
On May 5, we reported that consumers’ preferences and expectations about healthcare have shifted. A survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers from patient access solutions company Kyruus revealed insights on peoples’ experiences during the pandemic and the permanent impact it has made on their future care decisions.
As has been reported elsewhere throughout the health crisis, the survey found that many consumers have put their care on hold during the pandemic, with safety their primary concern (48 percent), followed by recommendations from a provider or healthcare organization to postpone care (30 percent). Over 50 percent of respondents reported delaying some type of care (e.g., routine, specialty, mental health, or surgical care) during the pandemic.
Later that same month, we reported that the HIMSS21 healthcare trade show, scheduled in-person in Las Vegas in August, adopted a “vaccination required” approach for all attendees, exhibitors, and staff. The announcement was made on Monday, May 17 by leaders at the Chicago-based Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). The annual conference normally draws more than 40,000 attendees, and the last year it was live, in 2019, more than 43,000 attendees and 1,400 vendor booths were at the show.
On Aug. 3, as the Delta variant of COVID-19 continued making headlines, the Verona, Wisc.-based Epic Systems Corporation announced through a letter to all staff that they will require all U.S.-based employees be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 1, according to an article from Madison, Wisconsin’s NBC15.
On Aug. 4, Healthcare Innovation attended and reported on an Arlington, Va.-based Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) media briefing on some of the current challenges faced by the U.S. healthcare system, in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Delta variant. The briefing featured experts Ezekiel J. Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., vice provost for global initiatives, University of Pennsylvania, and Ricardo Franco, M.D., a practicing infectious diseases specialist and an IDSA member. Barbara D. Alexander, M.D., president, IDSA, moderated.
Emanuel commented on education regarding the vaccine, saying that “There has also been a major educational initiative. Obviously, this battling a major disinformation initiative being circulated out there. I don’t think this is misinformation, I think it is clear it is disinformation, that false facts are being spread about the vaccine.”
He then added, “170 million Americans have been vaccinated. Around the world, about 3 billion doses of vaccines have been given. It is incredibly safe. We have not seen major, major problems. It is incredibly effective.”
Just a few days later, we reported that on Aug. 3, seven Wichita, Kan.-based infectious disease doctors signed a letter calling for universal vaccinations for healthcare workers, due to the surge of Delta variant cases, according to an article by Anna Auld from KWCH.
The article states, “Dr. Keck Hartman is a part of Infectious Disease Consultants, a medical group in Wichita. He wrote the letter pleading to make the COVID-19 vaccine a requirement, stating about 25 to 30 percent of healthcare workers have not gotten it. He said the requirement is meant to protect the workers and their patients.”
On Sept. 9, in a breaking news article, President Joe Biden announced a sweeping new set of mandates around vaccination, in order to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus. One element of that new set of mandates was a new mandate for healthcare organizations receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding.
The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) posted to its website the following:
“The Biden-Harris Administration will require COVID-19 vaccination of staff within all Medicare and Medicaid-certified facilities to protect both them and patients from the virus and its more contagious Delta variant. Facilities across the country should make efforts now to get health care staff vaccinated to make sure they are in compliance when the rule takes effect. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), announced today that emergency regulations requiring vaccinations for nursing home workers will be expanded to include hospitals, dialysis facilities, ambulatory surgical settings, and home health agencies, among others, as a condition for participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The decision was based on the continued and growing spread of the virus in health care settings, especially in parts of the U.S. with higher incidence of COVID-19.”
As the year progressed, misinformation and disinformation surrounding the pandemic continued. On Nov. 8, we reported that the Washington, D.C.-based Doctors for America (DFA), posted a letter signed by hundreds of healthcare professionals urging Facebook to release data on the extent of COVID-19 disinformation on the platform. DFA is a 501 national, multi-specialty organization of physicians and medical students in the United States with a stated goal of improving affordable healthcare access.
The letter states that “The recent Facebook whistleblower disclosures have confirmed what many of us have suspected for a long time: that Facebook has repeatedly stonewalled the public, lawmakers, and academics over the last 18 months despite having had ‘deep knowledge’ about the scope and nature of COVID-19 and vaccine disinformation across its apps. For example, it has known what kinds of users were most likely to share falsehoods, and that authoritative sources on Facebook had become ‘cesspools of anti-vaccine comments’ that created ‘a huge problem’ that the company needed to fix.”
Later in November and into December, we reported on a series of lawsuits against the Biden administration over vaccination mandates. We reported on Nov. 11 that 10 state attorneys general sued the Biden administration over the CMS vaccine mandate that had been created through the issuance of an interim final rule, asserting federal overreach. On Nov. 19, we reported that West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s office published a press release announcing that West Virginia, and 11 other states, joined a lawsuit against the Biden Administration in opposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates for healthcare workers, including those working for Medicare and Medicaid certified providers and suppliers. Kentucky and Ohio joined the case in the following weeks. On Nov. 30, we reported that a federal judge in Missouri has temporarily blocked the Biden administration vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in 10 states.
On Dec. 2 we reported that the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana has granted a preliminary injunction enjoining the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) from enforcing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate nationwide. On Dec. 7, we reported that a federal judge in Georgia blocked the Biden administration’s enforcement of a vaccine mandate for federal contractors nationwide, now all three of President Biden’s vaccine mandates for the private sector have been put on hold. On Dec. 17, we reported that a federal appeals court revived in 26 U.S. states a COVID-19 mandate issued by President Joe Biden's administration that requires healthcare workers to get vaccinated if they work in facilities that receive federal dollars.
Then, a major development took place on Friday, Dec. 17, when a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, located in Cincinnati, reversed an initial circuit court ruling, finding in favor of OSHA and the Biden administration, and affirming OSHA’s vaccine mandate for employers with 100 or more employees. Just before the appeal of the case to the U.S. Supreme Court was announced, Healthcare Innovation Editor-in-Chief Mark Hagland interviewed Keith A. Wilkes, a shareholder in the Tulsa-based Hall Estill law firm, about this situation. Wilkes, who has spent 26 years practicing labor and employment law, shared his perspectives on this complex situation. Below are excerpts from that interview. When asked if he thought it’s likely that the Supreme Court will simply let the Sixth Circuit’s decision stand or will there be oral arguments in the case, he replied saying that “If they do say they’re going to take it up, it wouldn’t bode well for the Biden administration.”
Finally, on Dec. 21 we reported that President Biden laid out plans to expand COVID-19 testing sites across the U.S., deliver a half-billion free at-home tests, and deploy additional federal health resources to assist overwhelmed hospitals due to the spread of the Omicron variant.
The White House issued a statement saying that “We know how to protect people from severe illness, we have the tools needed to do it, and thanks to the President’s Winter Plan, we are ready: 73 percent of adult Americans are fully vaccinated—up from less than one percent before the President took office—and we are getting about 1 million booster shots in arms each day. Vaccines are free and readily available at 90,000 convenient locations. There is clear guidance on masking and other measures that help slow the spread of COVID-19. And, federal emergency medical teams are ready to respond to surges nationwide.”
