A roundup of articles on the status of the Coronavirus and ways we can help….
After the Reval, let’s bring universal medicare to America so this can never happen again.
Teenager Turned Away from Urgent Care for Lack of Insurance Dies After Testing Positive for COVID-19
Renee Fabian, The Mighty, March 27, 2020
https://money.yahoo.com/teenager-turned-away-urgent-care-211500313.html?utm_source=ground.news
A teenage boy who tested positive for COVID-19 died in Lancaster, California, after being denied service at an urgent care center because he did not have health insurance. While the county health department walked back its initial claims he died from COVID-19, his family questions why they weren’t informed he tested positive.
On Wednesday, Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris outlined in a video that a 17-year-old died after testing positive for COVID-19. The teenager went to an urgent care center with respiratory symptoms but was turned away because he didn’t have insurance. Parris said the boy was rushed to the hospital, but he didn’t make it and he died from septic shock, according to ABC News. He died five days after he started showing symptoms.
“He had gone to an urgent care,” Parris said in the video. “He didn’t have insurance so they did not treat him and sent him to AV Hospital. En route to AV Hospital, he went into cardiac arrest. They were able to revive him and keep him alive for about six hours. But by the time he got there, it was too late.”
Related: What to Know About Diabetes and COVID-19
The teenager’s death was initially attributed to COVID-19, a new-to-humans coronavirus that causes respiratory infection and can lead to serious or fatal health complications. However, the Los Angeles Public Health Department said it is investigating the teenager’s death further with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) because other factors may have caused his death.
Related: 5 Ways to Deal With Sensory Overload During the COVID-19 Crisis
“Though early tests indicated a positive result for COVID-19, the case is complex and there may be an alternate explanation for this fatality,” the department said in a statement. “Patient privacy prevents our offering further details at this time.”
The youth death reported earlier related to #COVID19 will require further evaluation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For more information on COVID-19, visit https://t.co/1s7uG82bPT pic.twitter.com/OkzbvvUQel
— LA Public Health (@lapublichealth) March 25, 2020
Related: 11 Alternatives to Toilet Paper If You Can’t Find Any in Stores
According to Los Angeles Daily News, however, the teenager’s family had no idea he had tested positive for COVID-19, even at the time of his funeral. The father has reportedly also tested positive for the coronavirus. Mayor Parris expressed frustration at the lack of communication from the health department and its potential cost to the safety of the community.
“How am I supposed to make decisions as the mayor of Lancaster if I learn about a death in our community a week later in a press release?” Parris said. “This was not the father’s fault. This was the leadership’s fault.”
If confirmed the teenager’s death would be the first case of a minor dying from COVID-19 in the United States. There are currently more than 85,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S., and the virus has caused nearly 1,250 deaths so far. According to the CDC, about 2 to 3% of those hospitalized for COVID-19 are under the age of 19. Prior to an investigation into the Lancaster teenager’s death and another teen’s death in Louisiana, the CDC reported no deaths of people under 19 in the U.S.
Regardless, health and public officials urged the public to keep practicing safety precautions, including social distancing and frequent hand-washing, to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The CDC reported that about 20% of people between the ages of 20 to 44 in the U.S. who test positive for COVID-19 require hospitalization.
“Young people can and will be impacted by this virus,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom. “In fact young people disproportionately are the ones testing positive in California. … With this tragic death it’s a reminder for everyone to take this seriously.”
Majority of young Americans support universal basic income, public healthcare: poll
A majority of younger Americans support both a universal basic income established by the federal government and some sort of public healthcare option, according to a new survey.
The poll from University of Chicago’s GenForward Survey Project indicates that 51 percent of Americans between the ages of 18-36 support a federally-funded basic income of $1,000 per month for all U.S residents, a plan touted by businessman Andrew Yang during his 2020 Democratic presidential campaign.
Younger Americans also want to see the current U.S. healthcare system expanded at the federal level, the poll finds, with 35 percent supporting the creation of a so-called “public option,” or a public healthcare plan that would compete with private insurers. Another 17 percent said that the U.S. healthcare system should be replaced with a single-payer “Medicare for All” system.
In comparison, just 21 percent said that they supported keeping the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and building off it while 17 percent supported repealing that plan entirely.
Economic anxiety remains a serious concern for younger Americans, which may contribute to their support for expansions of the social safety net. According to the survey, 59 percent of young adults said that they were at least somewhat worried about their ability to afford a surprise $1,000 expense in their personal lives, while only 30 percent said they were not worried about such a possibility.
The University of Chicago study was completed by 3,257 Americans aged 18-36 between February 7 to February 20, 2020, via phone and internet surveys. The survey’s margin of error is 2.36 percentage points.