By PAUL NATINSKY
In early February 2020, the news stories and warnings began to appear about a virus in China emerging from a “wet market” in a city of 11 million whose name I’d never heard. My first thought was here we go again. Just like MERS or SARS—and seemingly every winter’s inevitable exaggerated blizzard forecast—I figured it was another alarmist health scare that would never reach American shores.

In mid-March, it became clear that this time it was real—the “coronavirus” had arrived, was spreading fast and was going to wreak havoc in our lives. Even at first and amid the confusion of mixed messages and unclear science, I suspected this disease [Read More]

The rising cost of prescription medicine was the issue of the day before the House Health Policy Committee as it took up two bills March 4, one to bar so-called copay “accumulators” and a second to require drug makers to report price increases to the state.

HB 4353, sponsored by Rep. Bronna Kahle (R-Adrian), would require all copays to count toward an insured’s deductible and out-of-pocket costs. HB 4347, by Rep. Angela Witwer (D-Delta Twp.), would require manufacturers to report price increases to the Department of Insurance and Financial Services.

The bills are reintroductions of legislation considered last term.

Sarah Procario of the Hemophilia Foundation of Michigan told the committee many patients rely [Read More]

By LIZ SZABO
There’s a reason soldiers go through basic training before heading into combat: Without careful instruction, green recruits armed with powerful weapons could be as dangerous to one another as to the enemy.

The immune system works much the same way. Immune cells, which protect the body from infections, need to be “educated” to recognize bad guys — and to hold their fire around civilians.

In some covid patients, this education may be cut short. Scientists say unprepared immune cells appear to be responding to the coronavirus with a devastating release of chemicals, inflicting damage that may endure long after the threat has been eliminated.

“If you have a brand-new virus and [Read More]

By EWA MATUSZEWSKI
“If they close a door, go through the window. If the window is closed, check the chimney.” When faced with an obstacle, these were the words of wisdom from my mother, a native of Poland who spent time in a displaced persons’ camp after World War II. While I haven’t gone down the chimney yet, I’ve certainly gone through many windows in the past year. So now, a look back.

Mid-March 2020 adds another meaning to the famed Ides of March, which alternatively refers to the assassination of Julius Caesar, a lunar celebration in ancient history marking a new year, or simply a very bad omen – which would [Read More]

By STEPHEN SHAVER
In an effort to increase the availability of COVID-19 testing and decrease the cost of testing to individual consumers, Congress required group health plans and commercial health insurers to provide coverage for COVID-19 testing with no cost-sharing, prior authorization, or other medical management requirements. However, months of ambiguous guidance have opened the door for inconsistent implementation and left providers, especially the clinical laboratories doing the testing, in a precarious position.

Congress’s efforts began with the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act (FFRCA), enacted on March 18, 2020. The FFCRA required group health plans and commercial insurers to provide coverage of FDA-approved tests “for the detection of SARS–CoV–2 or the [Read More]

By BILLEE LIGHTVOET WARD, ESQ.
One year ago, in March of 2020, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Secretary) declared that, because of the public health emergency resulting from the number of confirmed cases of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID), circumstances exist to justify the authorization by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of emergency use of drugs and biological products during the COVID-19 pandemic. This action followed similar declarations permitting so-called “Emergency Use Authorizations” or “EUAs” for in vitro diagnostics and for ventilators, respirators and other medical devices. Since that time, the FDA has issued hundreds of EUAs for the use of various medical products [Read More]

Lansing Lines is presented in cooperation with MIRS, a Lansing-based news and information service.

Pressure Builds On DHHS Director Confirmation Vote

Three more Republican senators urged for the rejection of the appointment of Department of Health and Human Services Director Elizabeth Hertel March 4, while Democratic legislators are beginning to rally around her confirmation.

Sens. Tom Barrett (R-Potterville), Jim Runestad (R-White Lake) and Dale Zorn (R-Ida) joined three other colleagues in urging for a vote to reject Hertel based on her support, in part, on “her absurd and blatantly unconstitutional belief” that DHHS directors can, theoretically, issue public health orders that restrict public movement “forever.”

“The Senate should decline to consent to Director [Read More]

Michigan is ranked 42nd among the states according to how much it’s reopened from COVID-19 restrictions, according to one site tracking pandemic-related restrictions on a state-by-state basis.

However, Michigan isn’t necessarily an outlier among the states when it comes to particular COVID-related restrictions, according to a MIRS review of sites tracking restrictions, such as the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP), The New York Times and USA Today.

The state openness rankings compiled by Virginia-based government relations firm Multistate is based on a score derived from 11 factors, ranging from whether state residents are under a stay-at-home order, to the extent of specific restrictions on industries [Read More]

By JONEL ALECCIA
Kaitlyn Romoser first caught COVID-19 in March, likely on a trip to Denmark and Sweden, just as the scope of the pandemic was becoming clear. Romoser, who is 23 and a laboratory researcher in College Station, Texas, tested positive and had a few days of mild, coldlike symptoms.

In the weeks that followed, she bounced back to what felt like a full recovery. She even got another test, which was negative, in order to join a study as one of the earliest donors of convalescent blood plasma in a bid to help others.

Six months later, in September, Romoser got sick again, after a trip to Florida with her dad. [Read More]

Lansing Lines is presented in cooperation with MIRS, a Lansing-based news and information service.

School Outbreaks, Sports Guidance
The number of ongoing COVID outbreaks in school settings went up for the fourth week in a row, according to numbers released by the state Feb. 8.

With 32 new outbreaks among the 131 overall the first week of February, that eclipses the 105 from last week, the 70 from Jan. 25, and the 60 the week before that.

The 32 new outbreaks in schools were down from the 35 new ones reported the prior week, however. Before that, the numbers had been on the rise, up from the 26 from the week of [Read More]