Iowa news
Sioux County mobile effort helps people in crisis
Response team members from Seasons Center are trained to de-escalate a variety of situations. They might speak with someone who’s just “having a bad day,” a person who’s struggling with substance abuse issues or an individual who is upset about being involuntarily committed. Janelle Hultquist, a crisis intervention staff member for Seasons Center, said the program is a state-mandated core service. Each mental health region partners with an agency and funds the service. Sioux Rivers Mental Health & Disability Services chose to collaborate with Seasons Center, which offers a broad range of psychiatric and behavioral health services in northwest Iowa. (The Courier)
Maternal Substance Use Disorder Clinic challenges stigmas, improves access to care
The Maternal Substance Use Disorder Clinic uses an interdisciplinary approach, including midwifery, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, social work, and counseling to improve patients’ overall health and set mothers and babies up for success, said Meagan Thompson, a certified nurse-midwife and clinical assistant professor at UIHC. The clinic opened in August 2020 to meet an urgent need to help mothers struggling with this disease, Thompson said. (The Daily Iowan)
Sanford Health confirms two more high-level resignations following executive VP’s departure
Two more members of Sanford Health’s leadership team have left the organization, officials confirmed. Chief Marketing Officer Kimber Severson and Chief Philanthropy Officer Bobbie Tibbetts resigned, following the departure of former Executive Vice President Micah Aberson. (Argus Leader)
National news
Pfizer says its antiviral pill cut COVID-19 hospitalization, death 89% in clinical trials
Pfizer said its experimental COVID-19 antiviral pill reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 89% in clinical trials, and the drugmaker plans to file for emergency-use authorization from the FDA as soon as possible. The drug, called Paxlovid, was given to non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients at high risk of progressing to severe illness and was most effective when given within three days of symptom onset. The results are based on a phase ⅔ study, in which there were no deaths in the group that received Paxlovid compared to 10 deaths in the placebo group. (Becker’s Hospital Review)
Does my child really need the COVID-19 vaccine? A guide for parents of 5-11-year-olds
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off on using Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11. The approval came days after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized it for emergency use. As vaccinations begin nationwide, many parents have lingering questions about how to proceed. Since the start of the pandemic, almost 6.4 million children have tested positive for COVID-19, with the number of newly diagnosed cases in recent weeks remaining “extremely high,” the American Academy of Pediatrics reported at the end of October. Thankfully, severe illness, hospitalization and death because of COVID-19 were uncommon among kids, it noted. (NBC News)
U.S. COVID-19 deaths get even redder
As 2020 wound down, there were good reasons to believe that the death toll during the pandemic’s first year might have been worse in red America. There were also good reasons to think it might have been worse in blue America. Conservative areas tend to be older, less prosperous and more hostile to mask wearing, all of which can exacerbate the spread or severity of COVID-19. Liberal areas, for their part, are home both to more busy international airports and more Americans who suffer the health consequences of racial discrimination. But it turned out these differences largely offset each other in 2020 — or maybe they didn’t matter as much as some people assumed. Either way, the per capita death toll in blue America and red America was similar by the final weeks of 2020. Then the vaccines arrived. They proved so powerful, and the partisan attitudes toward them so different, that a gap in COVID-19’s death toll quickly emerged. (The New York Times)