Iowa news
UnityPoint Health announces Marshalltown open house, hospital move time frame
As UnityPoint Health – Marshalltown nears completion of its new hospital, it’s ready to share key dates associated with the transition. The new hospital, which is the result of a $38.4 million expansion of the existing medical park on the south edge of the city, will be unveiled to the public in a community open house from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, April 23. The event will begin with a short ribbon-cutting ceremony before members of the community tour the facility, enjoy refreshments and giveaways, and enter a drawing for a FitBit or a children’s bike. (Times-Republican)
Midwest Mental Health plans to expand services in southwest Iowa
Midwest Mental Health offers a variety of therapy ranging from simple mental health evaluations to family therapy, couples therapy, individual therapy for kids and adults, and Behavioral Health Intervention Services. Through this service, providers can work with children at school and children and families in their homes to open up services for families that can’t access services otherwise. They work with 11 different school districts. (Valley News Today)
After two years of COVID-19, the world must keep its guard against ‘a very promiscuous virus’
Anyone who feels certain the world will — or won’t — suffer through another crippling pandemic should talk to Dr. Stanley Perlman. The University of Iowa medical professor is one of the nation’s leading experts on coronaviruses, including the one that caused the COVID-19 pandemic. His years of research helped enable the extraordinary science that produced the vaccines and medicines now reining in the crisis. But even he is unsure whether such advances could block another new disease from sweeping around the globe. (Des Moines Register)
National news
Biden wants more COVID-19 relief funds. The GOP wants to know where previous relief went
The Office of Management and Budget has said its identified an “immediate need” for several billion dollars to bolster relief efforts. The letter requested that Congress consider the funding request by March 11. Republicans in the deeply divided Senate have said they would not authorize additional funding until the White House accounted for the trillions of dollars Congress has approved thus far. (Iowa Public Radio)
Biden’s plans to curb mental health crisis include virtual care
President Joe Biden’s plans to address the growing mental health crisis in America include expanding virtual mental health care options. In his first State of the Union address, President Biden detailed the actions his administration plans to take to combat the mental health epidemic. These include investing in programs to bring providers into behavioral health, expanding and strengthening payment parity between physical and mental health care, increasing behavioral health navigation resources and widening access to telemental health care. (mHealthIntelligence)
Booster restores vaccine protection lost against omicron
Two doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines provide minimal protection against symptomatic illness caused by the omicron variant of the coronavirus, but a booster shot restored protection, new research finds. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found the Pfizer vaccine’s effectiveness against symptomatic disease plummeted to about 8% from about 65% six months after the second dose of a primary vaccination series. (NBC News)