Health
Survey: One in five New Hampshire adults say they won’t get vaccinated
The state’s rate of fully vaccinated residents has been stuck at 54 percent since July. The latest Granite State Panel from the University of New Hampshire Survey Center suggests neither the Delta variant nor the state’s $1.3 million vaccine campaign will make much of a difference. According to the survey, one in five New Hampshire […]
Lawyers say practice of emergency room boarding continues
Four months after the New Hampshire Supreme Court told the state it could no longer detain people in hospital emergency rooms without a hearing within three days, the practice continues, according to lawyers for the hospitals and people held during a mental health crisis. An attorney representing the state Department of Health and Human Services […]
Unruly crowd forces Health and Human Services to postpone vaccine registry hearing
This story was updated Sept. 9, 2021 at 7:30 a.m. with new information. The state Department of Health and Human Services abruptly postponed a hearing on proposed changes to the vaccine registry Wednesday after losing control of the room to an unruly crowd of vaccine opponents and privacy rights activists. Wearing “Live Free or Die” […]
Website gives state high marks for pandemic recovery, but COVID numbers suggest all is not well
Hospitalizations and cases are climbing quickly. Thirteen people have died since the start of the month. And the vaccination rate is inching up, but slowly. Still, when it comes to recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, New Hampshire ranks fifth, according to WalletHub, a finance site often cited for its state-by-state economic rankings. Maine’s second-place finish […]
Ripples of new Texas abortion law make their way to New Hampshire
A six-week abortion ban, similar to the one that is now law in Texas, didn’t make it out of the Democratic-controlled New Hampshire House in 2020. Its sponsors say they’ll refile it, hopeful the passage this year of a 24-week ban indicates new support for even stricter abortion restrictions. And one of them, Rep. Walter […]
‘Coping through COVID-19’ series continues Wednesday with discussion on back-to-school anxiety
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health will kick off its latest “Heads Up: Coping through COVID-19” series Wednesday with a conversation about the anxiety of returning to school during a pandemic. The series began shortly after COVID-19 hit New Hampshire and has explored the pandemic’s impact on mental health and frontline health care workers, and addressed concerns about the […]
Policy analysis sees investment in aid programs as key to economic recovery
The New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute’s latest look at the state’s pandemic employment recovery draws a good news, bad news, good news conclusion. Unemployment numbers are dropping. We’re still not where we were pre-pandemic, however, largely because of a lack of child care – and lower-wage workers have been particularly hard hit. But, we could […]
Pandemic meets ‘infodemic’: COVID data is everywhere – but it takes real skill to interpret it
An Iowa surgeon who does not, for the most part, treat COVID-19 patients, recently used his first Facebook post ever to say he leaves his lawn care to a landscaper and his car troubles to a mechanic. He’s taking the same approach with COVID-19 and asked that more of us do the same. “Biostatistics is […]
State to receive $1.6 million federal grant for health care navigators
Under Trump administration budget cuts two years ago, the state’s health care navigator program was reduced to one tool for finding uninsured people and getting them insured: a telephone number that’s answered in West Virginia. That’s about to change. A $1.6 million federal grant headed to New Hampshire will maintain the hotline but will also […]
COVID cases on the rise among state’s school-age children
As schools reopen and their masking policies remain controversial, positive COVID-19 tests among school-age children, most of whom are not eligible for vaccination, are climbing. Between Aug. 1 and Aug. 30, the most recent dates available, positive tests among 0- to 9-year-olds increased by 663, for a total of 6,410 since the pandemic began. For […]
COVID in the 603: The stories and the data
COVID-19 cases are climbing, the death toll is rising, and the vaccination rate is creeping up. Available hospital beds are down, Laconia is a hot spot today, and COVID-19 is disproportionately prevalent among Hispanic residents. Yes, the state’s COVID-19 dashboard is among the best sources for up-to-date information on the pandemic in New Hampshire. But […]
‘People can get sick and never recover’: The unceasing struggle for COVID long haulers
If Heidi Heath was in charge of measuring COVID-19’s toll, she’d do more than count cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. She’d share “long hauler” stories like her own. “Keeping people alive is not the only measure of success,” said Heath, 38, of Exeter, whose long COVID-19 began 17 months ago with flu and strep throat-like symptoms […]