Iowa news
Reynolds attributes Iowa’s low ranking in second doses to a reporting error
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Wednesday Iowa’s low ranking among the states in delivering two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine is largely because of a reporting error. Last week, Reynolds was asked why Iowa was so slow, relative to other states, in getting two doses of the vaccine administered to residents. At the time, she said she was unaware of the situation and suggested the ranking was incorrect. On Wednesday, she said the state has been “working to resolve a lag in the time administration of second doses” within the recommended 21-day window for the Pizer vaccine and the 28-day window for the Moderna vaccine. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
UnityPoint’s Mary Hagen receives lifetime achievement award from 100 Great Iowa Nurses
Mary Hagen of UnityPoint-Health Waterloo has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the 100 Great Iowa Nurses program. She is a previous honoree. On May 2, the 100 Great Iowa Nurses will be celebrated in a virtual ceremony. This is the 17th anniversary of the program. The celebration is an annual prelude to National Nurses Week, May 6-12. (The Courier)
Local EMS staff pushing for House Bill to make service “essential”
In the state of Iowa, if a person needs police or fire protection, those agencies are required to respond. However, that’s not the case if you need an ambulance. That’s because emergency medical services or EMS are not considered essential, and Tripoli’s EMS Director says because of that, the industry in is a state of crisis. (KCRG)
National news
What brains could teach scientists about the lasting effects of COVID-19
Dr. Avindra Nath spends his days surrounded by brains. His goal: learning all he can about how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, affects brain tissue, potentially leading to long-term symptoms of the virus. His is one of several projects at the National Institutes of Health aimed at figuring out why some patients experience lingering symptoms, including profound fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, fevers and headaches weeks and months after their acute infection. (NBC News)
Ripe for extortion? Navajo Nation hospital targeted by large-scale ransomware hack
When Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services in Gallup, New Mexico, was hit with a cyberattack earlier this year, the hospital’s staff had to revert to pen and paper to keep things running. Publicly available details about the hack are scarce, and the hospital has declined to comment beyond confirming that the security breach briefly forced its staff off its computers. But sensitive employee files posted online by a hacker group known for ransomware attacks indicated just how deep an attack the hospital had suffered: files on everything from job applications and background checks to staff injury reports. (NBC News)
Insurers embrace telemedicine as regulators ease requirements
Just as the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation in the property/casualty insurance world, the outbreak has also hastened the development of telemedicine, sources say. “One thing that may be accelerating is the growing acceptance of telemedicine,” said James Auden, Chicago-based managing director of insurance at Fitch Ratings Inc. Insurers were “dabbling” in telemedicine in “a lot of areas,” said Brad Ellis, senior director at Fitch Ratings in New York. The pandemic forced insurers to move faster in the implementation of telemedicine. (Business Insurance)