\’Covid emergency\’ over but fears for mental health, loss of insurance are rising

The officially declared national public health emergency related to COVID-19 has now ended for two weeks. There were some risks associated with the emergency disruption, including ending mandates for health insurers to reimburse at-home COVID tests, changes to how vaccines are paid for, and loss of Medicaid coverage automatically continues for those who qualified during the pandemic.

Potential loss of health insurance is a particular concern. Here in Minnesota the Department of Health has mounted a campaign to keep those eligible for public health insurance enrolled and is releasing a dashboard to track progress.

According to the dashboard, nearly 1.5 million Minnesotans are expected to renew their state-sponsored health insurance over the next two years. So far, in April and May, about two percent of those awaiting renewal have lost their coverage. If that rate continues over the next two years, an estimated 30,000 Minnesotans could lose coverage. Some of these will undoubtedly get employee-sponsored coverage, but the matter deserves continued attention.

Among other threats to ending the public health emergency is the continued erosion of timely data. Here in Minnesota, we are still receiving relatively timely hospital admissions and wastewater data, and so far, these trends continue to point in the direction of a decrease in COVID threats. There are some notable exceptions.

The daily average of COVID-19 hospitalizations for the week ending May 18 reached a low not seen since the start of the pandemic: 10, including eight in regular hospital beds and two in intensive care units. This follows a several-week trend of declining hospitalizations for COVID-19.

Health department data also shows officially reported cases have dropped below 100 for the first time since the start of the pandemic, but official reports lack home testing as well as asymptomatic cases.

In the last week for which the Department of Health reports reliable COVID-19 mortality data, the week ending May 4, there were an average of three COVID-19 deaths per day. While every death is a tragedy, this matches a low last seen in June 2022. Notably, data from health departments shows a rare day of zero COVID deaths on April 28.

The state\’s most timely wastewater reports, from the Metropolitan Council and the University of Minnesota Genomic Center, show a further decline in COVID-19 levels. For the week ending May 21, they report total viral RNA [COVID-19] Cargo entering the Metro plant was down 36% last week compared to a week earlier. Load is now 90% lower than mid-February and lower than mid-March 2022.

Parallel analysis of statewide wastewater from the University of Minnesota, which released final data through May 14 yesterday, also shows low and continuously declining levels of COVID-19 in most of the state.

The big exception is in the Southeast region of the studios, where COVID levels have risen nearly 600% in the past month. When asked about this spike, a spokesperson for the University of Minnesota Wastewater Surveillance Team replied, \”There was a large spike at one of the treatment plants, which occurred earlier and is not unique to a particular site\”. The sewage surveillance team will monitor the next time point to determine whether it is a trend or not. They have previously seen large spikes with an equally rapid return to low levels.

Indeed, the peak reflects high measurements on both May 7 and May 10, followed by a measurement more in the region\’s normal range on May 14. in COVID-19 activities in that region.

This week, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a warning about the mental health effects of social media, particularly among young people.

While social media can offer benefits, such as finding supportive communities, being more connected with friends, and serving as a creative outlet, there are risks as well. Children aged 12 to 15 who spend more than three hours a day on social media have twice the risk of mental health problems, according to recent research cited by the Surgeon General\’s report. That amount of social media use isn\’t uncommon in fact, the average for teenagers according to another recent study was 3.5 hours of social media use per day.

Specific causes of the mental health effects of social media use include the perpetuation of body dissatisfaction and the amplification of social comparisons, especially among girls. Hate-based content is another cause.

The report follows another recent mental health report from the surgeon general, which focused on what he called an epidemic of loneliness and isolation. That report says that while social media and technology may provide much-needed resources in some ways, like online support groups, the harm comes when it displaces in-person engagement, monopolizes our attention, and reduces the quality of interactions.

Research has found, for example, that the use of phones during face-to-face interactions between parents and children, and between family and friends, leads to more distractions, poorer quality of conversation, and less enjoyment of time spent together .

So how anxious and depressed are young people in the United States, and Minnesota in particular? Our analysis of recent data from the US Census Household Pulse Survey shows a solid trend of increasing anxiety and depression with decreasing age.

The data doesn\’t include people under 18, which the Surgeons Generals focused on this week, but for 18-24 year olds the numbers are startling. Transgender people in that age group had the highest rates of anxiety and depression among all age and gender groups, at 78 percent. Young women had the second highest, at 56 percent. Within each age group, women have higher rates of anxiety and depression than men, and transgender people have reported much higher rates than either women or men.

The same general trends are also true in Minnesota, although Minnesota\’s sample size of transgender people was too small to include in our analysis. Women in the 18-24 age group had a rate of anxiety or depression of 52%, which is more than eight times the group with the lowest rate of 6.4% for men aged 75 and over.

If you are a parent or guardian of children, the Surgeon General\’s Report offers some suggestions:

• establish tech-free zones in your home to better foster in-person relationships
• teach children responsible online behavior
• model of responsible online behavior
• report problematic content and activity