Health
US executive branch acknowledges NM Downwinders for the first time
A top official with President Joe Biden’s administration on Wednesday acknowledged the federal government’s role in sending cancer-causing dust into the lungs of thousands of New Mexico residents when it detonated the world’s first atomic bomb in 1945. The 15-minute meeting Wednesday morning was the first acknowledgement by the executive branch of the feds’ role […]
Those seeking new omicron boosters left to fend for themselves safety-wise
New Mexicans started getting the new omicron-specific coronavirus vaccine on Wednesday but were left to figure out on their own how they will safely get the shot. The CDC and state governors around the country this year rolled back public health protections, including indoor mask mandates for essential services and business that advocates say would […]
COVID-19 vaccine may become annual, like flu shot
WASHINGTON — COVID-19 boosters shots are on track to become as frequent as the annual flu shot, though high-risk people may need more than one dose per year, Biden administration officials said Tuesday. “For a large majority of Americans, we are moving to a point where a single annual COVID shot should provide a high […]
New omicron-specific vaccines and boosters due out this week in NM and available to everyone over 12
New Mexico public health officials are expecting the new omicron COVID-19 boosters to arrive at health care providers across the state this week. The bivalent boosters, approved by the FDA on Aug. 31, are meant to provide protection from severe disease and death resulting from an infection with the strains of coronavirus known as omicron-BA.4 […]
White House requests $47 billion in emergency funding for Ukraine, vaccines and more
The Biden administration is asking Congress for emergency funding to support Ukraine’s military, national COVID and monkeypox responses and to help communities affected by natural disasters. The current fiscal year ends Sept. 30 and Congress has not passed a funding measure for next year, so a short-term bill would be needed to keep the government […]
Veterans Affairs says it will provide abortions — even in Texas
The Department of Veterans Affairs said Friday it will provide abortions for veterans and their beneficiaries as medically necessary or in cases of rape or incest. The VA said it plans to provide abortions across the entire nation — including states, such as Texas, that prohibit the procedure. The VA’s decision reopens access to abortion […]
Coronado Park residents need more help to find stable housing, survey shows
Finding safe and stable housing for the former residents of a now-closed Albuquerque encampment will require more effort from the city’s service organizations, as those who needed help “were not well served by traditional outreach methods,” according to a team who surveyed them. City staff and Albuquerque StreetConnect, a Heading Home program, surveyed 94 people […]
‘We’re Losing Our People’
As a young girl, Arlene Juanico would rush to gather the laundry before the explosions started. When the alarms sounded, Juanico would hustle to grab the clean garments off the clothesline before she was enveloped by dust clouds. But Juanico’s little legs usually couldn’t get her back to shelter in time. That’s when the yellow-flecked dust […]
State-funded reproductive health clinic could face a worker shortage
The excitement following the governor’s promise to put $10 million toward a reproductive health clinic in southern New Mexico is peppered with the reality that there is a serious health care worker shortage in the state. When Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced the investment Wednesday in an executive order, she paraphrased a famous line from […]
Brazilian asylum-seeker who died by suicide held in ‘horrific conditions,’ attorneys say
A Brazilian asylum seeker who died by suicide while being held by immigration officials in New Mexico was detained indefinitely and had been unable to get clear or consistent information about when he would be removed from the prison, according to attorneys monitoring conditions inside. Kesley Vial came to the U.S. from Brazil seeking protection, […]
Gallup hospital staff didn’t report death of patient during call system breakdown, report says
Someone admitted to a beleaguered Gallup hospital died this year after being forced to ring an old-fashioned hand bell to call for help instead of being able to use a modern call-light system, a report shows. The failed call-light system was one of several major issues at the hospital that prompted a group of doctors […]
New Mexico governor and thousands of New Mexicans have COVID
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Thursday morning tested positive for COVID-19. The New Mexico chapter of the survivors’ group Marked by COVID the next day wished Lujan Grisham a speedy recovery and said her infection “underscores the uncontrolled high community spread of the virus in New Mexico and the fact that no one is safe […]