Stories: Health Matters in the Heartland

Javascript is required to use this website.

August Health Matters: Nebraska patients opted for telehealth visits during the pandemic

Health-Matters-Heartland-Logo-Horizontal-V2.jpg

Kayla Northup's family is pretty healthy, but when her kids do get sick, it's often at an inconvenient time, such as on a vacation.

That's why she likes having the option of setting up a telehealth visit instead of going to an urgent care clinic or the emergency room.

This page requires Javascript.

Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

Watch now: Health care sector in Nebraska works to rebuild, bolster workforce

Internship program connects Latino students with careers in health care

OMAHA — As high school students, Camila Delgado Garcia and Joerdy Flores-Garcia both were interested in health care careers.

So the Omaha youths signed up for a health and wellness internship offered by the Latino Center of the Midlands and CHI Health. Their internships helped them decide what they wanted to do.

This page requires Javascript.

Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

071022-owh-new-healthmatters-LS03 — Incoming UNO freshman Camila Delgado Garcia's opportunity for a health career started with an internship program offered by Latino Center of the Midlands in Omaha. Already a certified nursing assistant, she wants to become a dental hygienist.
LILY SMITH, WORLD-HERALD

Jeremy Nordquist

071022-owh-new-healthmatters-LS01 — Selene Espinoza, a surgical assistant with CHI Health, said she wanted to make sure Latino students could see people like themselves in health care settings, so she got involved in a Latino Center/CHI Health program last year.
LILY SMITH, WORLD-HERALD

Sue Nuss (copy) — Sue Nuss

Russ Gronewold

JaleneCarpenter — Jalene Carpenter

creightondoc — Bo Dunlay
COLIN CONCES PHOTOGRAPHY

Read previous stories in the Health Matters series

Nebraska researchers help develop portable isolation units

Dr. Jana Broadhurst and her team developed a modified PCR saliva test at Emerging Pathogens Laboratory at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Photographed in Omaha on Tuesday, June 7, 2022.

Just before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, the University of Nebraska Medical Center's Global Center for Health Security received a grant from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to strengthen infection-control training, education and tools.

The program was targeted to small, rural hospitals across the country that face some of the most persistent challenges in infection prevention and control, said Dr. Jana Broadhurst, director of UNMC's emerging pathogens laboratory.

This page requires Javascript.

Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

Pandemic forced Nebraskans to innovate

More Lincoln students showed up late to class — or not at all — in wake of pandemic

COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Lincoln

Staffing shortages, COVID-19 spread plagued Nebraska providers in past year, survey finds

Pandemic forced Nebraskans to innovate

Dr. Jana Broadhurst and her team developed a modified PCR saliva test at Emerging Pathogens Laboratory at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Photographed in Omaha on Tuesday, June 7, 2022.

In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers, clinicians, businesspeople and everyday men and women spun out new ways to deal with the coronavirus.

The result was a host of innovations, including new designs for masks and face shields, intubation shields for COVID-19 patients, ultraviolet disinfection methods for protective gear and 3D-printed nasal swabs. Along with those came a flurry of new tests for the virus, some treatments and highly effective vaccines brought to market in record time.

Decon 1 (copy) — While protective gear was hard to find early in the pandemic, Nebraska Medicine used ultraviolet light towers such as this one to decontaminate masks so they could be used multiple times instead of just once.
NEBRASKA MEDICINE

This page requires Javascript.

Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

Michael Dixon

Joe Runge

Staff at the University of Nebraska Medical Center's emerging pathogens laboratory developed this modified PCR saliva test to get around supply shortages that plagued the nasal swab and PCR-based testing early in the pandemic and meet the demand for screening programs in the community.
ANNA REED, Omaha WORLD-HERALD

Dr. Andrew Goldsweig — Andrew Goldsweig

Dr. Tyler Martin — Tyler Martin

Staffing shortages, COVID-19 spread plagued Nebraska providers in past year, survey finds

Lancaster County reports COVID-19 death

COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Lincoln

How the availability of COVID-19 treatments has changed throughout the pandemic

January 2020: SARS-CoV-2 sequence is made public

January 2020: SARS-CoV-2 sequence is made public — The world first learned about the coronavirus in late 2019, as the disease spread through Wuhan, China. Within weeks of the first documented COVID-19 cases, a group of scientists—including those in China and international collaborators—published the virus’ sequence on an open-access site. Virologist Edward Holmes shared a link to the sequence on Twitter, enabling researchers around the world to begin studying the virus.
That early research included vaccine development at Moderna and BioNTech, a German biotechnology company that would soon partner with Pfizer on clinical trials. As both of these companies had previously been working to produce vaccines based on genetic sequences, they were able to quickly adapt their work to the coronavirus. Moderna’s first clinical trial for its vaccine started in March 2020, just two months later.
Smith Collection/Gado // Getty Images

May 2020: Emergency authorization for antiviral drug remdesivir

May 2020: Emergency authorization for antiviral drug remdesivir — Remdesivir was another early drug that received Emergency Use Authorization in spring 2020. This antiviral drug, made by the biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, was shown to shorten COVID-19 patients’ recovery time in a trial run by the National Institutes of Health. After its emergency authorization, the federal government purchased about 500,000 treatment courses of remdesivir to distribute to U.S. hospitals between June and September 2020.
Later, in 2020, hospitals started working directly with Gilead to purchase the drug. It has remained one of the most widely used antiviral drugs for hospitalized COVID-19 patients and was fully approved by the FDA—a more rigorous process than emergency authorization—in October 2020.
ULRICH PERREY/POOL/AFP // Getty Images

November 2020: First monoclonal antibody treatment receives authorization

November 2020: First monoclonal antibody treatment receives authorization — Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly was the first to begin testing a monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19. In these treatments, patients receive infusions of lab-made immune system proteins that are designed to fight off the coronavirus. The treatments effectively give a boost to the immune systems of patients who are particularly vulnerable to severe symptoms.
Bamlanivimab, Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody treatment, received Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA in November 2020. A similar treatment made by Regeneron received Emergency Authorization later that month. Both treatments were initially only available for high-risk patients in hospitals but became more widely distributed in 2021.
Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times // Getty Images

December 2020: Pfizer, Moderna vaccines receive authorization

December 2020: Pfizer, Moderna vaccines receive authorization — Less than a year after Chinese scientists publicly shared the coronavirus’ genetic sequence, two mRNA vaccines designed from this sequence received emergency authorization from the FDA. Many scientists and health experts considered this quick timeline a “miracle,” as no vaccine had ever been produced so fast in human history.
The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were able to progress so quickly because both BioNTech and Moderna, along with the National Institutes of Health, had been working on coronaviruses and genetic sequence-based technology for years before COVID-19 hit. In addition, the Trump administration poured billions into vaccine development and production through “Operation Warp Speed,” allowing the COVID-19 vaccines to move through bureaucratic hurdles more efficiently.
The U.S. vaccine rollout started on Dec. 14, 2020, with a New York City critical care nurse receiving the nation’s first dose. Healthcare workers and nursing home residents were first in line for doses, followed by seniors and other immunocompromised and otherwise vulnerable Americans.
SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP // Getty Images

Summer 2021: Politicization of monoclonal antibody treatments

Summer 2021: Politicization of monoclonal antibody treatments — As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout progressed in 2021, vaccination became increasingly polarized: As of January 2022, 91% of people who identify as Democrat have received at least one dose of vaccine compared to 63% of people who identify as Republican, according to polling by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Republican politicians who are hesitant to alienate their bases by encouraging vaccination have instead turned to monoclonal antibody treatments as an alternative option for reducing COVID-19 deaths. During the summer 2021 Delta surge—which primarily hit Southern, Republican-led states where mask mandates also served as a political tipping point—governors in Florida, Texas, and other nearby states set up monoclonal antibody clinics where residents could receive these treatments for free.
By mid-September, just seven states were accounting for 70% of monoclonal antibody orders from the federal government, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The HHS responded by taking control of monoclonal antibody distribution, making it similar to the distribution system for remdesivir in 2020.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket // Getty Images

August 2021: Pfizer vaccine receives full FDA approval

August 2021: Pfizer vaccine receives full FDA approval — Eight months after Americans started receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization, the FDA fully approved this vaccine. “The public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product,” Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement at the time.
Some public health experts hoped that the full FDA approval would help to convince vaccine-hesitant Americans—concerned about the rapid timeline for COVID-19 vaccine development—that Pfizer’s vaccine was entirely safe and effective. However, polling and data analysis afterward found that the full approval had a limited impact on vaccine uptake. Vaccination rates went up slightly in late August 2021 but fell again in September.
Michael Nagle/Xinhua // Getty Images

Nebraska health care providers adapted during pandemic

Over 1,100 registered dietitians took part in a survey to reveal the top food and nutrition trends of 2022.

OMAHA -- Freddie Warner Jr. couldn’t take it anymore.

His hip hurt, which caused him to put more pressure on his knee. That made his back hurt. He couldn’t sit or stand for long periods. The 51-year-old Omaha man gave up his job in lawn care, his occupation since high school.

Freddie Warner Jr.

This page requires Javascript.

Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

Cory Shaw

Cary Ward

Clayton Thor — Dr. Clayton Thor, an orthopedic surgeon with CHI Health, Dr. Clayton Thor, an orthopedic surgeon with CHI Health, said most of his hip and knee replacement patients before the pandemic spent at least one night in the hospital. Now, roughly 80% to 85% go home the same day.
ANNA REED, WORLD-HERALD

041022-owh-new-trends-ar02 — Freddie Warner Jr. tidies up a neighborhood while working for a landscaping company in Omaha earlier this month. Warner had his left hip replaced in December and his right knee replaced in February. He was released from the hospital on the same day after both surgeries. The practice became more common during the pandemic.
ANNA REED, WORLD-HERALD

A brief look at American health care’s long, complicated history

A brief look at American health care’s long, complicated history

A brief look at American health care’s long, complicated history — America’s health care system has existed, in one form or another, since the time when the country’s founding fathers were still fighting for their freedom from Great Britain. Over the intervening 200-plus years, medical care in the U.S. has had a long history of ups and downs, from the difficulty of addressing racism toward the formerly enslaved to the historic enactment of the Affordable Care Act.
Health care in the U.S. may be best described as a hodgepodge of systems. From a global perspective, there are four main models of health care, each of which takes a different approach both legislatively and in practical terms of how it affects a populace’s ability to obtain health care coverage and services. The U.S. model is unique among nations in that it incorporates aspects of each of the four health care models into its own. Most Americans receive coverage under what is known as the Bismarck model, which is to say they are covered through their employer. But the U.S. Veterans Health Administration more closely resembles the Beveridge model, as it leans toward a more socialized coverage system. And then there is Medicare, whereby the U.S. government acts as a single-payer service for older Americans. This is in stark contrast to our neighbor to the north—Canada offers a national health insurance model, where the government essentially runs health care on behalf of its citizenry. In China, an out-of-pocket model is in place, meaning people are on the hook to pay their medical expenses as needed, while in Europe, various countries offer more socialized renditions of the Beveridge and Bismarck models.
The 2020 U.S. Census indicated that as many as 8.6% of Americans do not have health insurance. Universal health care has proven to be an especially tricky topic for Americans to navigate, as lobbyists and politicians alike have waged ferocious campaigns to try bringing it to life—or burying it from ever being signed into law. To this day, the Affordable Care Act, which in recent years brought the country closer to the universal health care model, remains under scrutiny.
With political battles over the health care system ongoing—the most recent controversies centering on health care for transgender youth and the COVID-19 vaccine—Sidecar Health identified 10 major milestones in U.S. health care policy from the colonial era to recent history, charting our nation’s fraught relationship with how it cares for its citizens.
Bettmann // Getty Images

1781: First medical society established

1781: First medical society established — The Massachusetts Medical Society is the oldest medical society in the U.S. that is still in operation. It was incorporated in 1781 to “promote medical and surgical knowledge, inquiries into the animal economy & the promotion & effects of medicine.” Several of the nation’s founding fathers, including revolutionary leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, were among the Society’s 31 founding members. “It was born in troublous times; and its founders were still engaged more or less actively in a political struggle which even today, by reflex action, is exerting a powerful influence on the events of the world,” Samuel Abbott Green, a physician and historian, said in a speech in 1881. The “political struggle” Green referred to was the Revolutionary War and, in fact, the society was established just days after the Battle of Yorktown. A medical society had been previously established in 1735 in Boston, but it was short-lived and its records were lost. Since it was established, the Massachusetts Medical Society has grown from its original number of 70 members to its current roster of 23,000 members.
Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

1945: Harry Truman’s proposal for a national health insurance fails

1945: Harry Truman’s proposal for a national health insurance fails — Despite it being a failed attempt, President Harry Truman’s proposal in 1954 for national health care was still a crucial moment in American history. After pointing out that millions of Americans were without health care, President Truman told Congress, “The time has arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and that protection.” Truman wanted to introduce universal health insurance to address the shortage of health care available to workers in rural areas, improve the quality of hospitals, and slow rising health care costs. His bill, however, didn’t gain enough support. But it was a significant ask during a time when the country was mired in the early decades of the Cold War and any governmental system perceived to be “socialist” in nature was construed as anti-American.
Bettmann // Getty Images

1950-1960s: American Medical Association lobbies against single-payer systems

1950-1960s: American Medical Association lobbies against single-payer systems — The American Medical Association has long been in opposition to single-payer systems, stretching as far back as the 1950s. During that time period, the AMA lobbied harshly against socialized health care, supporting employer-sponsored health care plans instead. Later, in the 1960s, the organization created Operation Coffee Cup in retaliation against President John F. Kennedy’s proposal to introduce federally supported health care for the elderly. The plan called for the Woman’s Auxiliary, which had partnered with the AMA, to rally support through morning coffee meetings. The campaign even featured a speech by Ronald Reagan who stated, “One of the traditional ways of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine.”
[Pictured: President Kennedy speaks at Madison Square Garden in New York to a crowd of 17,000 people, many of them elderly. In his address, Kennedy urged the nation's doctors to get the facts on his proposed legislation to offer medical care for seniors.]
Bettmann // Getty Images

1970s: First bills for single-payer system are proposed in Congress

1970s: First bills for single-payer system are proposed in Congress — In 1971, Senator Ted Kennedy introduced the Health Security Act, which called for health care coverage for all U.S. citizens and documented permanent residents. It competed with a similar bill, the National Health Insurance and Health Services Improvement Act, backed by Senator Jacob Javits. The legislation was offered up as a solution to skyrocketing inflation that was impacting the health care system. Eventually, in 1974, Kennedy presented a compromise, though it not only lost approval from unions, but also was dropped entirely due to President Nixon’s Watergate scandal and subsequent resignation from office. After Gerald Ford became president, Representative Grey Mills attempted to reintroduce the bill, but it lost traction after it received lukewarm support from both political parties.
[Pictured: Senator Edward Kennedy lectures in front of a chart on health care spending in June 1971.]
CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

2010: Affordable Care Act passes

2010: Affordable Care Act passes — The Affordable Care Act, popularized in the media as “Obamacare,” was a sweeping health care reform law that expanded health care coverage for Americans and was the most dramatic overhaul of the U.S. health care system since the ratification of the Medicare and Medicaid Act in 1960s. The ACA expanded health care services and required that all American legal residents obtain and hold health insurance. The act also created a health insurance marketplace where people could search, compare, and sign up for health care plans. Of the reform legislation, President Barack Obama said, “In the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one should go broke just because they get sick.”
While the act remains in place and certain evidence shows that it has reduced health care disparity for minorities, there has been no shortage of challenges to its retention. On April 5, 2022, President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to expand quality, affordable health care coverage. The Biden Administration has also proposed eliminating “family glitch,” which is when employer-sponsored health care insurance is affordable only for the employee. Purchasing family coverage is often costly, so the proposal would give an employee's family members premium tax credits to purchase more affordable insurance in the marketplace.

This story originally appeared on Sidecar Health and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
KAREN BLEIER/AFP via Getty Images