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Nevada has struck a $45 million settlement deal with McKinsey & Company for the global consulting firm’s role in advising opioid makers how to sell more prescription painkillers amid a national overdose crisis...The western state reached the deal after sitting out a multi-state settlement with McKinsey announced in February. The hard bargaining has allowed Nevada to win a settlement that’s three and a half times larger than the average settlement with other states...READ MORE

Health care companies and insurers were among the biggest spenders of the 2020 campaign cycle, shelling out more than $1 million on legislative campaigns over the two year period...That marks a sharp increase over the 2018 cycle, which saw just $744,000 in combined legislative campaign contributions from the industry...The Nevada Independent categorized and analyzed more than 7,700 individual contributions of more than $200 made to sitting Nevada lawmakers in 2019 and 2020...These contributions capture nearly all campaign spending throughout the two-year cycle, and more broadly show to whom the largest contributions flowed and how much those contributions were worth in the aggregate...not included is roughly $272,000 contributed by pharmaceutical companies. That fundraising total is large enough to justify a separate category in The Nevada Independent’s Follow the Money series, and a full breakdown of pharmaceutical campaign spending will be included in a later installment...READ MORE

The medical school at the University of Nevada-Reno will team with the state’s largest non-profit health care organization to boost education and research in northern Nevada, the new partners announced...The planned long-term agreement between UNR’s School of Medicine and Reno-based Renown Health is expected to be formalized later this year...Medical School Dean Dr. Thomas L. Schwenk said the partnership will increase access to care for the public and expand teaching and research opportunities...READ MORE

Gov. Steve Sisolak announced casinos could reopen June 4. Then the Nevada Gaming Control Board updated its health and safety policy, which outlines requirements aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19. Gaming companies quickly followed suit and unveiled which of their properties would be reopening along with some of the steps they’re taking to protect both workers and guests...But the process hasn’t appeased the powerful Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which represents roughly 60,000 employees who work in casinos-resort properties as guest room attendants, cooks, porters, baristas, bartenders and cashiers, among other roles...READ MORE

Fourth-year students in the UNLV School of Medicine’s first graduating class participated Friday in Match Day to find out where they’ll do their residency...The school held a small outdoor ceremony at its Shadow Lane campus in central Las Vegas. Each student was allowed to invite one guest to the ceremony, which was streamed live online...At 9 a.m., each student opened a deck of playing cards and pulled out one saying where they’ll spend the next three to seven years doing a residency in their chosen specialty...Match Day happened Friday across the United States — and even internationally — for students to learn which U.S. residency program they’re matched with. Touro University Nevada in Henderson and University of Nevada, Reno, also held events...READ MORE

Nevada health officials reported Monday that about 1 in 6 people statewide has received at least a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine since shots became available in mid-December...“I do think progress is starting to finally click and continue to increase,” said James English, COVID-19 response operations chief in Washoe County, where state statistics show 16.8% of residents have received their first shot and 9.8% have been fully vaccinated...READ MORE

Whether or not the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine helpful in treating patients with COVID-19 has been a topic of debate for months now...“Recommendations of many of the people including doctors. many think it is extremely successful,” the President said...In Reno, one local doctor says the drug has helped several dozen of his patients...“Frankly, everyone that I have treated has gotten better”...Doctor Bruce Fong is Medical Director at Sierra Integrative Medical Center in south Reno. He says when paired with azithromycin and zinc, hydroxychloroquine has been effective...Many of the nation’s top medical experts do not agree, and Fong feels he knows why...“There was nobody bothering us about it and trying to put up regulations about it prior to President Trump saying something about it. It seems like his political enemies try to make him look bad.”...READ MORE

People from 55 to 64 with certain medical conditions are now eligible to get COVID-19 vaccinations at Nevada pharmacies, with no proof of medical status required...The state opened up eligibility this week to those in this age group with conditions ranging from cancer to smoking that put them at higher risk for serious disease from COVID-19...Eligibility also has been extended to those with conditions that only potentially put them at higher risk, such as asthma or dementia, as well as to those with disabilities or who are experiencing homelessness...READ MORE

Washoe County Health District received doses from the same lot of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine that California health officials have recommended providers stop administering after several people in the state experienced apparent severe allergic reactions...The health district administered doses from the same lot Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, 041L20A, to about 770 people at its drive-thru point of dispensing vaccination site...None of those individuals have reported severe allergic reactions, and there were no issues reported from patients who used the 15- and 30-minute waiting lots, which are set up to ensure that patients don’t experience any allergic reactions before driving off, after receiving the vaccine...READ MORE

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak has touted open government as a crucial aspect to the state’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak. “You deserve transparency,” he proclaimed during an April 8 news conference, a statement reflecting the Nevada Public Records Act’s promise of open access to most government documents...But records vital to evaluating how Sisolak’s administration and state agencies have navigated the unprecedented emergency have proved difficult to obtain...Even a simple request for daily reports on hospital capacity made in early April, which would have spanned only a few pages at the time, was met with a response from a senior policy analyst in Sisolak’s office to wait “eight to 10 weeks” to receive the record...Among the requested documents that state agencies have delayed in producing or denied access to are the following:

■ Emergency management plans related to disease outbreaks or widespread health emergencies. Officials took more than 40 days to deny the request.

■ Documents tracking testing of prison inmates and staff for COVID-19. Denied by officials after 13 days.

■ Written communications among top prison officials about COVID-19 testing. Officials said they would respond “in the next 45 days.”

■ Records related to Nevada’s government stockpile of personal protective gear for medical workers. Officials said it will take “eight to ten weeks or longer” to compile the documents....READ MORE