April 14, 2022
Dear friends,
Please read below for some important health care news, brought to you by Champaign County Health Care Cosumers (CCHCC).
State of Illinois expands Medicaid coverage to ALL immigrants ages 42-54 – regardless of immigration status. Starting July 1, 2022, everyone in Illinois ages 42 and older will have a pathway to healthcare coverage, regardless of their immigration status.
This win is the result of 8 years of campaigning and thousands of hours of work by dozens of organizations and countless individuals. Congratulations to all who have made a phone call, sent an email, shared their story, and helped build this campaign. Because of you, tens of thousands of people in Illinois will have access to healthcare coverage, many for the first time in decades.
Our work isn’t done yet. We’ll keep fighting for healthcare for ALL, until every person in Illinois has access to healthcare coverage, no matter their immigration status.
Our health is interdependent and we’re all safer when each of us has access to the healthcare we need. Thank you for supporting the fight for coverage for all!
COVID-19 has helped push the U.S. to its highest death total ever. 2021 was the deadliest year in U.S. history, and new data and research are offering more insights into how it got that bad.
The main reason for the increase in deaths? COVID-19, said Robert Anderson, who oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s work on death statistics.
The agency this month quietly updated its provisional death tally. It showed there were 3.465 million deaths last year, or about 80,000 more than 2020′s record-setting total.
Early last year, some experts were optimistic that 2021 would not be as bad as the first year of the pandemic — partly because effective COVID-19 vaccines had finally become available.
“We were wrong, unfortunately,” said Noreen Goldman, a Princeton University researcher.
COVID-19 deaths rose in 2021 — to more than 415,000, up from 351,000 the year before — as new coronavirus variants emerged and an unexpectedly large numbers of Americans refused to get vaccinated or were hesitant to wear masks, experts said.
U.S. COVID deaths soon to reach 1 million. As of Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. EDT, the unofficial COVID toll in the U.S. reached 80,493,086 infections and 987,702 deaths, increases of 26,425 and 543, respectively, since this time a day ago. However, experts warned that U.S. cases are likely being “dramatically undercounted.” (NBC News)
Vaccines work! Vaccines help reduce infections, and serious illness and deaths from COVID. An estimated 2.2 million deaths have been averted through COVID vaccination in the U.S., according to a report from the Commonwealth Fund.
CCHCC’s recommendations for you stay safe from COVID: We at CCHCC continue to recommend that everyone practice COVID safety as much as possible. We are still in a pandemic, and COVID cases are rising. Some municipalities, like Philadelphia, are reinstating mask mandates. Even if you are not likely to get very sick, you could still pass COVID on to someone who is vulnerable to severe illness, and you could still suffer long-term health consequences. So, it is still best to practice prevention.
We at CCHCC urge you to continue to mask up! We recommend the following:
• Keep masking up! Wear a mask when you are indoors with other people – especially around people who are not part of your “bubble”. This includes when you go to the grocery store, etc. Wear an N95 or KN95 mask if possible.
• Wash or sanitize your hands frequently. Wash for 20 seconds with soap and water, rubbing the soap and water all over your hand, including between your fingers and thumbs and up to your wrist. Make sure to fully dry your hands. Viruses thrive in damp environments.
• Continue to socially distance when you are around others who are not in your “bubble”. Keep 6 feet from other people AND wear your mask!
• Ventilate indoor environments when people gather (this can be as simple as opening windows and doors to create a cross-breeze).
Resources are available! There are many tools available to fight this virus, including vaccines and boosters, as well as free masks and testing kits.
To find where you can go to get vaccinated or boosted and where to get tested, please visit the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District website. [1]
Thank you for your support! We appreciate your financial support for our services, and your help getting the word out to others about CCHCC. Together, we are working to help our community survive the pandemic, and building a stronger, healthier community. Together, we are giving the gift of health!
DONATE NOW! [2]
Sincerely,
Champaign County Health Care Consumers