With W.H.O. and the United States ending the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) this spring after three years, what have we learned? Compared with the 1918 H1N1 "Spanish flu" pandemic that killed approximately 40 million worldwide, SARS-CoV-2 variants claimed a reported 7 million lives globally. While the 1918 H1N1 pandemic lasted two to three years, the virus took decades to exit the scene. Similarly as COVID-19 cases decline, this sneaky, evermutating virus survives — recently it's XBB 1.16 (Arcturus) a recent omicron XBB 1.15 (kraken) offshoot. Meanwhile 13.4 billion COVID-19 immunizations and acquired immunity appear to have helped reduce severity. Some adaptive changes occurred in U.S. medical care - increased access to private and public health care plans for many, a blossoming of telemedicine, tracking community spread of COVID, funding for COVID-19 testing, and quick development of vaccines with free vaccinations. Unfortunately, now around 300,000 Oklahomans and 15 million in the United States, including children and other vulnerable patients, may lose their health care coverage received during the pandemic under the continuous Medicaid enrollment provision. Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) enrollment increased by over 20 million people from February 2020 to November 2022, reaching almost 85 million under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Medicaid expansion in three states (including OK) helped.
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