Insurance churn and the COVID-19 pandemic
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 28-Jun-2025 01:10 ET (28-Jun-2025 05:10 GMT/UTC)
Four discrete cross-sectional surveys of US adults from 2020-2024 reveal US adults reporting high confidence in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) dropped from 82 percent in February 2020 to a low of 56 percent in June 2022, according to a study published June 26, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health by Amyn A. Malik and colleagues from UT Southwestern Medical Center, United States.
Prior studies have shown veterans are particularly at risk of dying by opioid overdose and the possibility of that occurring has been rising steadily over the past two decades. From 2010-2019, there was a 61.2% increase in risk of overdose death among male veterans. Interestingly, this increased risk was not observed among female veterans, despite rates of opioid use disorder (OUD) rising more quickly among women than men in the general population. Racial disparities in opioid overdose deaths are also prominent with a significant increase in death due to opioids among all racial and ethnic minority veterans, except American Indian or Alaskan Native veterans.
Given increases in opioid overdose rates and policy changes expanding access to medications for OUD during the COVID-19 pandemic, BU and VA researchers sought to understand how the opioid overdose epidemic impacted veterans with opioid use disorder. In their new study, they found female veterans and veterans from racial and ethnic minority groups were at higher risk of dying from an opioid overdose than other veterans.
The world has made unprecedented progress in vaccinating children against life-threatening disease since WHO established the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in 1974. Despite the progress of the past 50 years, the last two decades have also been marked by stagnating childhood vaccination rates and wide variation in vaccine coverage. These challenges have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving millions of children vulnerable to preventable diseases and death, according to a major new analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study Vaccine Coverage Collaborators, published in The Lancet.
The COVID-19 pandemic yielded important advances in testing for respiratory viruses, but it also exposed important unmet needs in screening to prevent the spread of infections in high-risk settings.
While PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests are the gold standard for detecting viral infections, they remain a challenge for screening large numbers of people in places vulnerable to outbreak — such as health care centers and nursing homes — due to high costs and the fact that different tests are required for each virus.
A new Yale study, however, finds that an alternate strategy — using a nasal swab to screen for an antiviral protein produced by the body as a defense against infection — can be an effective method for ruling out respiratory infections, limiting PCR testing only to those most likely to be infected, at a fraction of the cost.
The study was published online on June 20 in The Lancet eBiomedicine.
Researchers generated a strong immune response to HIV with just one vaccine dose, by adding two powerful adjuvants to the vaccine. This strategy could lead to vaccines that only need to be given once, for infectious diseases including HIV or SARS-CoV-2.
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Key findings
• This study revealed that >70% of workers with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) using changed their work style to telecommuting, resulting in decreased physical activity, and commuters tended to have shorter durations and lower rates of CPAP use compared to teleworkers.
What is known and what is new?
• The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has resulted in many lifestyle changes. However, no studies have reported how these factors affect obstructive sleep apnea patients undergoing CPAP treatment.
• Our study investigated the impact of lifestyle changes on CPAP users during Japan’s first state of emergency. Over 50% of CPAP users who were employed changed their work style, leading to reduced physical activity. Commuters showed shorter durations and lower adherence to CPAP therapy compared to teleworkers.
What is the implication, and what should change now?
• We provided important data on lifestyle changes during the coronary pandemic period for CPAP users. Further randomized controlled studies are needed to confirm these findings.