The COVID-19 pandemic has made for a continually changing workforce environment. Companies are adapting their practices and policies to support their staff by offering flexible paid and unpaid leave policies, reimbursing remote-work expenses and giving access to tools for managing stress and improving mental health. Employers are also providing on-going support for employees to help them understand and maximize their benefit package. Click here for more information and recent survey results from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP).

Millions of COVID-19 survivors worldwide–even those who had mild illness–are reporting long-term symptoms months later, including brain fog, persistent exhaustion and lung, heart or kidney damage. For too long, these long haulers, as they call themselves, have not been taken seriously enough by providers and researchers according to some doctors, adding that there’s an urgent need for dedicated research in order to treat patients with lingering symptoms. Many providers and healthcare systems initially dismissed the symptoms as related to something else, but growing evidence points to SARS-CoV-2 as the culprit in many cases. More research is needed to determine the full long-term effects.

Marcella Nunez-Smith, chair of President Biden’s COVID-19 Equity Task Force, told press and advocates during a January 28 White House health briefing that outreach to communities of color, people with disabilities and other marginalized groups will be a priority for the administration’s COVID-19 response. Black, Latino and Native Americans have disproportionately suffered higher rates of infection, hospitalization and death since the beginning of the pandemic, with the national death rate of Black patients reaching twice that of White patients last summer. Some distribution data suggest vaccine uptake is currently almost twice as high among White people on average than Black and Latino people despite the disproportionate morbidity and mortality rates.

Capital Link has issued a new report providing a national picture of health center revenue loss, COVID-19-related expenses, the influx of relief funds through Dec. 31, 2020 and the estimated funding gap, based on the 15-month period from April 2020 through June 2021. Results show that the nation’s more than 1,400 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) experienced a 26 percent decline in patient visits between April and December 2020, as patients complied with stay-at-home orders. Without additional support to cover the identified $5.5B shortfall through June 2021, many health centers sites will remain closed, and 29,000 staff may be laid off or furloughed and 66 percent of FQHCs will drain cash reserves to dangerous levels.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a fifth amendment to the PREP Act Declaration (not to be confused with PrEP for HIV) under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) to add additional categories of qualified persons authorized to prescribe, dispense, and administer COVID-19 vaccines. And in Pennsylvania, there is a document from October 2020 that actually delineates who can administer COVID-19 vaccines, including dental providers. However, there are protocols that need to be followed in order to do so.