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As health care workers face increased pandemic burnout, some states — particularly in underserved areas — have had challenges retaining existing staff and recruiting new clinicians. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is now committing $100 million through the American Rescue Plan to help solve the problem. "Our health care workers have worked tirelessly to save lives throughout this pandemic and now it's our turn to invest in them," Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. (Shivaram, 10/15)

A study yesterday in PLOS One details how the COVID-19 pandemic pummeled an already underfunded and understaffed US public health system, straining workers, upending services, and putting patients at risk. Led by a University of Tennessee at Knoxville researcher, the study involved a survey of 298 public health experts working for government agencies or academic public health departments from Aug 23 to Oct 5, 2020. Respondents included epidemiologists and workers who conduct disease surveillance, contact tracing, testing, and vaccination programs. (Van Beusekom, 10/15)

Pharmacy workers, especially technicians, are usually the first people customers deal with. Now, in the state’s charged atmosphere surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, some report angry pushback on vaccines and pressure to provide unproven treatments like ivermectin, state officials say. Pharmacists who for years have asked anyone picking up a prescription if they want a flu shot don’t dare bring up a COVID-19 vaccination. “I’ve talked to few pharmacists recently who are considering getting out of the profession or leaving Alaska due to the hostility they’re seeing at their job on a daily basis,” said Dr. Coleman Cutchins, the state pharmacist. (Hollander, 10/17)

As she leaves work, Dr. Allison Berry keeps a vigilant eye on her rearview mirror, watching the vehicles around her, weighing if she needs to take a more circuitous route home. She must make sure nobody finds out where she lives. When the pandemic first hit the northern edge of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, Dr. Berry was a popular family physician and local health officer, trained in biostatistics and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. She processed Covid-19 test kits in her garage and delivered supplies to people in quarantine, leading a mobilization that kept her counties with some of the fewest deaths in the nation. (Baker and Ivory, 10/18)

Anne Cotton had enjoyed her years at an assisted living facility in Corvallis, Ore. But at 89, her health problems began to mount: heart failure, weakness from post-polio syndrome, a 30-pound weight loss in a year. On Sept. 30, Dr. Helen Kao, her palliative care doctor and a medical director at Lumina Hospice & Palliative Care, determined that she qualified for hospice services — in which a team of nurses, aides, social workers, a doctor and a chaplain help patients through their final weeks and months, usually at home. ... But Lumina and other hospices that serve Benton County, Ore., are grappling with pandemic-fueled staff shortages, which have forced them at times to turn away new patients or delay their enrollment — as it did with Ms. Cotton. “It’s devastating,” Dr. Kao said. (Span, 10/16)

The Washington Medical Commission has suspended the license of a pediatric health care provider in southwestern Washington. The suspension came this week after an investigation into more than a dozen complaints against physician assistant Scott C. Miller, who runs Miller Family Pediatrics in Washougal, The Columbian reported. The complaints say he interfered with the care of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, engaged in a threatening public campaign against hospitals and doctors, and also prescribed medications without seeing patients. (10/16)