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State and local public health departments across the country have endured not only the public’s fury, but widespread staff defections, burnout, firings, unpredictable funding and a significant erosion in their authority to impose the health orders that were critical to America’s early response to the pandemic.

Real-world data show that filters clean COVID-causing virus from air

Research at a hospital swamped by people with COVID-19 has confirmed that portable air filters effectively remove SARS-CoV-2 particles from the air — the first such evidence in a real-world setting¹. The results suggest that air filters could be used to reduce the risk of patients and medical staff contracting SARS-CoV-2 in hospitals, the study’s authors say....

ALSO SEE: New air purifiers filter at least 90% of COVID-carrying particles

At a rural ICU, Covid-19’s summer surge put telehealth to the test A tele-ICU program run by the University of Alabama at Birmingham's health system has helped bolster critical care at a rural hospital. Katie Palmer STAT

On the surface, there’s little about Whitfield Regional Hospital that would make it a safety net for Alabama’s sickest Covid-19 patients. It has a small ICU with eight beds, and no critical care doctors on staff. The rural hospital has spent decades focused on caring for the community surrounding Demopolis, population 7,000, in the heart of the state’s Black Belt.